(The following story by Doug Wilson appeared on the Herald-Whig website on June 14.)
QUINCY, Ill. — Amtrak passengers can testify to the popularity of new passenger routes that were added between downstate cities and Chicago late last year. They also know there are still a few wrinkles to be ironed out.
Amtrak passengers were about 45 minutes late getting into Quincy Wednesday night after pulling onto a siding to let a northbound Amtrak train pass by.
“It’s much better now than it was” for on-time performance, said Jeff Mays of Quincy.
Marc Magliari, a spokesman for Amtrak, said on-time performance is not perfect but is improving. He did not have route-by-route comparisons today but said delays have declined in recent months.
Illinois legislators put $24 million in the fiscal 2007 budget to subsidize a second daily train for Quincy, one for the Chicago-Carbondale route and two for the Chicago-to-St. Louis route. The state had paid a $12 million annual subsidy since the mid-1990s to support the existing trains.
Passenger numbers from Amtrak show that 95,426 ticketholders took the trains along the Quincy-Chicago routes between November and the end of May. That’s up more than 29,500 passengers, or about 45 percent, from the previous year when only one train was operating.
Carbondale route passenger numbers are up 72 percent and St. Louis route numbers are up 107 percent.
“It seems right now like it’s a good investment” of state funds said Rep. Jil Tracy, R-Mount Sterling.
Magliari said the worst delays have been on the route between Chicago and St. Louis, where four different railroads own parts of the track.
Freight railroads are paid for the use of their track and some are better than others at accommodating the passenger trains. Magliari said Burlington Northern Santa Fe, which owns much of the track between Quincy and Chicago, is one of the better freight operations at cooperating with passenger railroads.
“BNSF earns more incentive payments” for helping Amtrak arrive on time, than do other freight railroads, Magliari said.
From Amtrak’s point of view, the big question this year is whether the Illinois budget will include a capital bill that might allow for some railroad improvements.
“We have needs on all three corridors,” Magliari said.
Sen. John Sullivan, D-Rushville, knows that Amtrak has improved its system for alerting passengers when trains are running late or routes are canceled.
Sullivan was supposed to take a train from Quincy to Chicago late last year on a day when heavy snows had halted trains. Although he checked online, there was no alert that the train was canceled, so Sullivan and about 40 other passengers waited for hours.
“They have taken steps and measures to upgrade the system they use to tell passengers what’s happening,” Sullivan said.
Mays said although freight train schedules may cause many of the delays, the one Wednesday night was caused by two Amtrak trains meeting at a place where there was not “double track” that would allow both trains to continue uninterrupted.
Magliari said Amtrak is constantly making adjustments to try to avoid such delays and is making headway.
“We’re not satisfied with our performance yet, but it’s getting better,” Magliari said.