Amtrak trains traveling through Bloomington-Normal are getting later and later.
A report of on-time performance shows a four-year decline in the number of trains arriving within a half-hour of the schedule: Last year it was 63%, in 2022 it was 69%. In 2021, it was 79%, and the on-time performance on the state-supported Lincoln service in 2020 was 85%, which is above the 80% that Amtrak considers a passing grade.
This is despite the introduction of higher speed rail 110 mph service on the Chicago-to-St. Louis corridor more than a year ago.
Historically, Amtrak has struggled with on-time performance in large part because freight rail companies cause passenger rail delays by forcing Amtrak trains to wait.
“Freight trains caused 900,000 minutes of delay to Amtrak passengers in 2023 — that’s equivalent to over 1.5 years of passengers waiting for freight to go first,” according to an Amtrak FAQ.
Freight lines such as CN and Union Pacific, which own key stretches of track on the Chicago-to-St. Louis corridor, are not supposed to do that. Part of the deal more than a half century ago that created Amtrak as the national passenger rail service, and allowed rail companies that owned the lines to drop their own passenger service, was that track owners would give passenger trains priority.
That has not happened, despite financial incentives Amtrak offers the railroads for better on-time performance, said Amtrak. And it has had a negative financial impact on the rail service.
The Lincoln service trains that operated on CN owned lines had 1,793 minutes of delay per 10,000 miles of operation, according to a 2nd quarter Amtrak report issued in July of this year. That ranked as the 16th-longest delay of Amtrak's 101 routes. Union Pacific-owned tracks on Lincoln service trains had 950 minutes of delay per 10,000 miles of operation, ranking 60th in the nation.
“On-time performance [OTP] of Amtrak’s trains has been a longstanding challenge for the company, which identifies poor OTP as a key factor driving its annual operating loss,” said the Amtrak assistant inspector general in a 2019 report.
Amtrak gives Union Pacific a lower grade than Canadian National for causing delays on the Central Illinois corridor.
Amtrak’s operating loss last fiscal year was $757 million. That’s actually an improvement of about $130 million from FY 2022. And it happened as national ridership improved by 31% in FY 2023, though ridership has still not risen to pre-pandemic levels, except on the northeast corridor. The 2024 fiscal year ends Sept. 30, 2024.
On the Chicago-to-St. Louis corridor through Bloomington-Normal, Amtrak reported ridership of 523,300 passengers, and an operating loss of $3.5 million last budget year. That’s $6.69 per passenger.
Systemwide operating losses could be eased with just slightly better on-time performance, according to that 2019 inspector general’s report.
“We estimate that improving OTP on each route by 5 percentage points, a conservative assumption based on common forecasting principles, could result in net financial short-term benefits of $12.1 million in the first year, including $8.2 million in reduced costs and $3.9 million in increased revenue. These benefits would accrue immediately based on shorter train-operating times and improved customer satisfaction," said the IG report. “Amtrak could realize one-time savings of $336 million, and annual savings of $41.9 million, if Amtrak trains were able to operate reliably.”
In a WGLT story more than a year ago, Normal Mayor Chris Koos expressed frustration with a trend toward longer freight trains of 2-3 miles that can block motorists at crossings for long periods of time. Those long trains also can affect Amtrak performance because they extend the time passenger trains may have to wait on sidings.
Now an Amtrak board member, Koos last week said the railroads' refusal to abide by that 1971 agreement to give passenger trains priority is being tested.
"The Department of Transportation is currently in a lawsuit with, I think, Norfolk Southern over issues like that and it looks like DOT and Surface Transportation Board are starting to look at holding the freights accountable for that agreement," said Koos.
That case may be the first result of a 2020 federal rule on metrics and minimum standards. Railroads had litigated against the rule for more than a decade before it was adopted, said Amtrak.
"The Surface Transportation Board now has the authority to investigate the causes of delay on Amtrak routes if customer on-time performance falls below 80% for two consecutive calendar quarters. If the STB finds that a host railroad has not given Amtrak trains statutory preference, it may award Amtrak damages and other relief," said Amtrak.
Railroad recalcitrance based on money made from freight hauling is not the only reason for substantial delays on the line running through Bloomington-Normal. For instance, the habitually late, long-distance train the Texas Eagle had significant improvement in on-time performance last year — from 45% in FY 2022 to 60% in FY 2023. The Texas Eagle uses some of the same tracks as state-supported Lincoln service trains that declined in on-time arrivals.
"We've had some equipment issues in the state-supported route with the Charger Locomotives that the state and Amtrak have come to an agreement for working on," said Koos.
A second quarter report for this year shows early trains through Bloomington-Normal have a better chance of being on time than those that run later in the day. The first southbound train out of Chicago had an 80.49% on-time mark. And the first northbound train out of St. Louis arrived in Chicago within the schedule 79.43% of the time.
