(The following story by Tim Landis appeared on the State Journal-Register website on April 25, 2010.)
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Texas Eagle, train 22, was 15 minutes late. Not bad, said longtime local travel agent Pat McKenzie.
“I avoid it. It was always late,” McKenzie said while purchasing a ticket for a different train to Chicago this past week.
The Eagle is among 15 long-distance routes Amtrak plans to review with an eye to improvements in the next two years, including more convenient schedules, station upgrades, additional amenities and reliability.
“It’s pretty early in the process, but we are looking at everything from the wheels up. There are no bad ideas,” said Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari.
The carrier has announced it would use focus groups and customer surveys to consider everything from station hours to the food on the menus.
Improvements to come?
Amtrak announced last month it has added wireless Internet to 20 high-speed Acela Express trains in the Northeast corridor of the country. The service also has been added at stations in Washington D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Wilmington and Providence.
A senior director said the service would be added in other major corridors as the technology becomes available, though a rollout schedule was not announced.
That would be welcome news for Jeff Ham, a self-described train lover who was returning last week from Austin, Texas, to his home in Grand Rapids, Mich., via the Texas Eagle. Ham said he recently purchase a 30-day pass on Amtrak.
“I love the train. A lot of it has to do with the way it slices through the country. I see things that at least I haven’t seen before,” Ham said.
Lack of wireless Internet, though, is a disadvantage compared to other forms of transportation, Ham added.
“They are behind on that. You can take a bus and get Wi-Fi. It’s a real disadvantage for the business traveler (on Amtrak),” he said.
Ham also said Amtrak should offer some type of in-train audio or visual explanation of historic sites and cities along the routes.
This month, Amtrak did begin allowing passengers to change travel plans online — including ticket exchanges, changing trains and selecting a different class of service — rather than requiring them to visit a ticket counter.
Printed tickets still must be picked at Amtrak stations, though E-tickets are in the works.
Some trains already have upgraded sleeping cars and replaced plastic dinnerware with china, linens and glassware. Amtrak also requested $443 million in its next fiscal year budget to upgrade cars, and the first biodiesel trains began operating this month between Oklahoma City and Fort Worth, Texas.
A two-hour wait
Roodhouse resident Becky Sherwin grabbed the Texas Eagle on Tuesday for what was only her second time on Amtrak. As in March, she was traveling to Wisconsin, but she said she hoped for a better connection through Union Station in Chicago this time.
“It (the train to Wisconsin) was leaving just as we pulled in. I had to wait like two hours,” said Sherwin, who graduates this spring from MacMurray College in Jacksonville.
Despite the delay on her first try, Sherwin said she would come back, especially with gasoline prices on the rise.
“It was pretty nice. It wasn’t crowded,” said the laptop-packing Sherwin, who added that wireless Internet would be a nice perk.
The conventional wisdom among veteran passengers is that the longer the route, the longer the delays when it comes to Amtrak. With more than two dozen stops on a 1,300-mile route, the Texas Eagle between San Antonio and Chicago has its share of delays.
But longtime Springfield station agent Bradford Steller said the Eagle has improved, especially in the last few years.
“It’s getting better. With the economy, there’s also been fewer freight trains,” said Steller, who has worked at the Springfield station since 1982.
According to Amtrak data, on-time performance improved from 20 percent in federal fiscal year 2006 to 75 percent in fiscal 2009.
Still an image problem?
Nearly 296,000 passengers took the Chicago-St. Louis trains, including the Texas Eagle, in the first six months of the federal fiscal year that started Oct. 1. The 10 percent increase from the same period a year earlier made the Illinois route one of the fast-growing corridors nationwide, according to Amtrak.
The figure were released at the same time Amtrak reported it was on pace to set a record nationwide for passenger boardings in the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30.
“I think it’s the economy and gas prices coming back up,” said Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau executive director Tim Farley.
Farley, who counts himself among regular Amtrak customers, said the carrier has become more aggressive with its vacation packages and fare discounts, but that for him it is primarily a matter of convenience.
“I can get a lot done on the train between Springfield and Chicago,” Farley said.
Farley said the Texas Eagle still must overcome its reputation as a chronically late train but that Amtrak generally has the economy and fuel prices on its side.
“It’s a different experience, but because of the economy more people are taking a second look. Now that that’s happening, they may be saying, ‘Why didn’t I do this before?’” said Farley.
* * *
On-time performance
The Texas Eagle makes 26 stops, including Springfield, on a 1,300-mile route between San Antonio, Texas, and Chicago. Here are on-time performances for the month of March and overall in the previous 12 months:
All trains (San Antonio-Chicago): 54.8 percent; 66.7 percent
Train 21, Springfield: 41.9 percent; 62.2 percent
Train 22, Springfield: 67.7 percent; 71.1 percent
All Illinois trains: 81.9 percent; 79.3 percent
Primary reasons for delays in March
Texas Eagle
* 42 percent track and signals
* 28 percent train interference (typically waiting for freights)
* 15 percent operational
All Illinois trains
* 48.5 percent train interference
* 37.1 percent track and signals
* 6 percent operational
Train delays are recorded in minutes and are a measure of deviation from schedule. Delays are classified by specific cause. Types of delay causes have been grouped together into the eight general categories: track and signal delays, train interference, equipment, weather, passenger, operational, non-railroad and other.
Source: Amtrak
How Amtrak defines “on time”
On-time performance is a percentage measure of train performance. It is calculated by taking the total number of trains arriving on-time at the end-point of the run divided by the total number of trains operated on the run.
A train is considered on-time if it arrives at the final destination, or end-point, within an allowed number of minutes, or tolerance, of its scheduled arrival time. Trains are allowed a certain tolerance at the end-point based on the number of miles traveled. For example, trains traveling 250 miles or less are allowed a 10-minute tolerance while trains traveling over 550 miles are allowed a 30 minute tolerance, which is the maximum allowed.
A long-distance train traveling more than 550 miles would be considered on-time if it arrived at its final destination within 30 minutes of its scheduled arrival time. On-time performance is only calculated and measured at the end-point of a train route.