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Amtrak Report Card on Freight Railroad handling of trains.

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Posted by JPS1 on Thursday, May 30, 2019 8:44 PM
According to Table 1B, Air Travel Consumer Report, U.S. DOT, for the first 10 months of 2018, YTD, Southwest Airlines had an on-time arrival record of 79 percent at the nation's 30 largest airports.  Southwest does fly to all of them.
 
A flight is counted as "on-time" if it operated less than 15 minutes after the scheduled time shown in the carriers' Computerized Reservations Systems (CRS).
 
On time performance varied somewhat between major airports.  Southwest’s high-low for the major airports measured was 90.3 percent at Fort Lauderdale vs 66.6 percent at Seattle.
 
For Milwaukee, in October 2018 on-time arrivals for all carriers was 84.5 percent.  On-time departures for all carriers was 87.1 percent.  
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Posted by CMStPnP on Thursday, May 30, 2019 6:31 PM

charlie hebdo
It is 15 minutes.  The Hiawatha Service has the best on-time record of any route,  exceeding even the Acela NEC target of 90%. But not good enough for you? 

Correction: best on-time record of routes on Amtrak.   Southwest Airlines has a better ontime record between city pairs I fly than the Hiawatha does.

Either make the schedules more realistic or increase the speed of the train to make the current schedule.   Silly to say the train arrives at a fixed time and rarely have the train pull in on that time.   The Europeans do a lot better and so do some of our airlines.

BTW, Amtrak Inspector Generals Report on Amtrak timekeeping and it's timekeeping database below.    Some of the reports by the Inspector General make you openly wonder about the competence of Amtrak Management in securing an IT system.

https://amtrakoig.gov/sites/default/files/reports/OIG-A-2017-007.pdf

 

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Posted by JPS1 on Thursday, May 30, 2019 9:03 AM
According to Amtrak’s Host Railroad Report Card 2018, grades are based on how often trains are on-time at each station within 15 minutes of the published schedule?
 
In calendar year 2018 the Hiawatha’s had the best on-time performance of any of Amtrak's trains at 96 percent.  For FY18 the on-time percentage for the Hiawatha’s was 93.2 percent, which was also the highest percentage of on-time performance for any Amtrak train or trains including the NEC.
 
Eleven of the 28 state supported trains received a passing score, which was based on an on-time score of 80 percent or better. 
 
The "Pass" trigger point for the long-distance trains is 70 percent.  Only the Auto Train at 72 percent received a passing score.   
 
With the possible exception of the Auto Train, the on-time performance ratings for the long-distance trains are meaningless.  The schedules are so heavily padded that they can be seriously late at intermediate stations and yet arrive on-time or nearly on-time at their end points.  
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Posted by charlie hebdo on Thursday, May 30, 2019 8:57 AM

It is 15 minutes.  The Hiawatha Service has the best on-time record of any route,  exceeding even the Acela NEC target of 90%. But not good enough for you? 

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Posted by CMStPnP on Wednesday, May 29, 2019 11:40 PM

Backshop
Airlines usually use +/- 15 minutes as being on time.

Surface Transportation Board says it should be 15 minutes for Amtrak as well per Amtrak Office of Inspector General but I believe they are using 10 min because I read that before in a rail study and RPA backs it up.   Could be the rail study was off.

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Posted by CMStPnP on Wednesday, May 29, 2019 11:24 PM

charlie hebdo
RP is an advocacy group.  Their statement is in error.  Amtrak publishes official reports monthly.  Six minutes late is allowed to be  on-time.  Airlines have fudge time too.  But for you,  if you don't like the factual data, you just ignore it.

What statement is in error exactly?    

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Posted by CMStPnP on Wednesday, May 29, 2019 10:58 PM

n012944
According to the Wisconsin DOT the routes ontime in 2018 was 93%, and in 2017 it was 95%.  So using those stats, it would be "pretty rare" to be on a late Hiawatha. I guess just have bad luck, or a cheap watch.  

Your using a PPT presentation so it is whenever the presentation was given probably.   I have another PPT presentation by the same individual that doesn't match your 2018 figure.

 BTW,  They state 97% on another website which matches Amtraks %.   WisDOT is sourcing the same stats but probably at a point in time versus year end for the PPT presentations, which is logical.

Probably a good argument in there not to use Powerpoint presentations or cite them for year end stats unless the presentation was given at year end.

https://rail.transportation.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2018/10/Arun-Rao-Wisconsin-DOT.pdf

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Posted by charlie hebdo on Wednesday, May 29, 2019 10:31 PM

n012944

 

 
CMStPnP

I ride the Milwaukee to Chicago trains at least twice a year and I look at my watch. Pretty rare for the train to arrive on schedule or early at CUS but not so rare to arrive within that 10 min window

 

 

 

Well that is a huge sample size.

 

According to the Wisconsin DOT the routes ontime in 2018 was 93%, and in 2017 it was 95%.  So using those stats, it would be "pretty rare" to be on a late Hiawatha. I guess just have bad luck, or a cheap watch.

 

https://wisconsindot.gov/Documents/projects/multimodal/rail/rc-rao.pdf

 

Maybe it was a conspiracy of the "Joe Lunchpails" against him.?

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Posted by n012944 on Wednesday, May 29, 2019 10:11 PM

CMStPnP

I ride the Milwaukee to Chicago trains at least twice a year and I look at my watch. Pretty rare for the train to arrive on schedule or early at CUS but not so rare to arrive within that 10 min window

 

Well that is a huge sample size.

 

According to the Wisconsin DOT the routes ontime in 2018 was 93%, and in 2017 it was 95%.  So using those stats, it would be "pretty rare" to be on a late Hiawatha. I guess you just have bad luck, or a cheap watch.

 

https://wisconsindot.gov/Documents/projects/multimodal/rail/rc-rao.pdf

An "expensive model collector"

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Posted by Backshop on Wednesday, May 29, 2019 9:00 PM

Airlines usually use +/- 15 minutes as being on time.

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Posted by charlie hebdo on Wednesday, May 29, 2019 8:56 PM

RP is an advocacy group.  Their statement is in error.  Amtrak publishes official reports monthly.  Six minutes late is allowed to be  on-time.  Airlines have fudge time too.  But for you,  if you don't like the factual data, you just ignore it.

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Posted by CMStPnP on Wednesday, May 29, 2019 8:31 PM

And here is how Amtrak actually measures on time performance for it's passenger trains......

https://www.railpassengers.org/site/assets/files/6989/otp_one_pager_v4.pdf

This was also outlined in a WisDOT rail study I posted a ways back but at least two of you missed the explanation and continue to cling to the Amtrak stats as a gold standard.    So when Amtrak says 97% ontime performance..........it's actually lower........not a gold standard.    

I ride the Milwaukee to Chicago trains at least twice a year and I look at my watch.   Pretty rare for the train to arrive on schedule or early at CUS but not so rare to arrive within that 10 min window.   So is it on time or not?

Over most of the Milwaukee to Chicago line, CP is the dispatcher not METRA including the portion South of Rondout, IL.......this is according to METRA's own reports or studies of that line.

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Amtrak Report Card on Freight Railroad handling of trains.
Posted by CMStPnP on Wednesday, May 29, 2019 8:23 PM

So I would dispute the Hiawatha 97% stats based on how Amtrak gathers timekeeping stats and determines if a train is late or not.   My contention would be the Hiawatha Service has a lower % on time rating just based on me riding the train,  it's pretty rare when I ride on the train to pull into CUS right on the mark or for that matter early same deal headed for Milwaukee.

Interesting Amtrak feels it is Federal Law that frieght railroads should give passenger trains preference when dispatching.   Apparently NS disagrees.

https://media.amtrak.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/CY2017-Report-Card-%E2%80%93-FAQ-%E2%80%93-Route-Details.pdf

 

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