(The following story by Elisa Crouch appeared on the St. Louis Post-Dispatch website on June 18, 2009.)
ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Amtrak’s track record on punctuality has traveled a long way in a short time.
In May, 93 percent of its passenger trains traveling between St. Louis and Kansas City arrived within 15 minutes of schedule — up from less than 1 percent last October. Its on-time performance has surprised longtime riders, who had become accustomed to delays as long as five hours.
Sandy Brown of Sunset Hills remembers the old Amtrak.
When she took Amtrak to Kansas City several years ago, “it was terribly late,” she said, waiting to board at the Kirkwood station recently. “It has been late most the time.”
According to Amtrak, arriving on time is critical to keeping passengers happy. “We’ve made some huge strides,” Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said.
Service between St. Louis and Chicago also is improving.
In May, 77 percent of trains on the Illinois line arrived within 15 minutes of their scheduled arrival, compared with 26 percent the same month last year, according to Amtrak figures.
The challenge for Amtrak now becomes getting the word out to passengers who may have tried the train last summer when gasoline prices shot up, only to face long delays. When gasoline prices fell last fall, so did ridership gains. The number of riders in Missouri went from 18,615 in July to 11,571 riders in November.
“You literally have people who get off the train and say they’re not getting on the train again,” said Rod Massman, administrator of railroads for the Missouri Department of Transportation. “You can’t run a service like that.”
In Missouri, the dramatic turnaround began late last fall, after Union Pacific, which owns the track Amtrak uses, added an extra track across the Gasconade River. About the same time, a new federal law called for fines on railroad companies, such as Union Pacific, if they didn’t keep passenger trains running on schedule 80 percent of the time. It was about that time that on-time performance began to improve for Amtrak trains in Illinois as well.
And then earlier this year, the Missouri Department of Transportation began working with Union Pacific on the biggest stumbling block to keeping passenger trains on schedule: the track itself.
“It’s almost like a perfect storm of things started,” Massman said.
Amtrak uses a double track between St. Louis and Jefferson City. But west of the capital, there is only a single track, and Amtrak must share it with 50 to 60 freight trains daily. Freight train interference causes most of Amtrak’s delays. Union Pacific dispatchers direct Amtrak trains to pull over onto sidings whenever a freight train needs to pass. Those sidings aren’t long enough to hold a mile-long freight train, which is why passenger trains must always yield.
To unclog one major bottleneck, Union Pacific is using $5 million from the state and $3.3 million from the federal government to lengthen a siding near California, Mo., where Amtrak trains and freight trains meet regularly. By November, the new siding should allow slower freight trains to move off the main track and let faster passenger trains pass, reducing annual delays by an additional 17 percent, according to MoDOT.
Union Pacific has spent tens of millions of dollars in Missouri in recent years on track upgrades — removing curves, replacing weak rail with stronger rail, and improving crossings. The improvements allow trains to travel more quickly, and allow Union Pacific dispatchers to get trains around each other without delays.
As a result, “We’ve been able to see an improvement in velocity in Amtrak and freight,” said Mark Davis, spokesman for Union Pacific.
It also hasn’t hurt Amtrak that freight traffic nationwide is on the decline.
In May, U.S. rail carload traffic was down 25 percent compared with the same month last year, the Association of American Railroads reported. Freight traffic has been declining since November, reflecting the drop in demand for chemicals, raw materials and consumer and manufactured goods, such as automobiles.
When freight traffic picks up, track improvements and changes in Union Pacific’s dispatching should keep Amtrak on schedule, rail officials say.
Amtrak’s improved on-time performance isn’t a fluke, Massman said. “We think it a trend that will stay this way.”
But much will depend on Union Pacific’s dispatching priorities.
“It really comes down to how well we operate on their tracks under their control,” Magliari of Amtrak said.