WASHINGTON — Amtrak could significantly boost its revenues and cut expenses if it improves its on-time performance, according to a report by the Transportation Department’s inspector general. Doing so, however, would require the cooperation of the freight railroads, which host the national passenger carrier on their tracks.
Amtrak’s long-distance trains were on time just 42 percent of the time last year, according to the report issued March 28 and made public this week. That’s an improvement from 30 percent in 2006, but probably not good enough to win over large numbers of passengers.
But an improvement to 85 percent for all Amtrak routes would lead more people to opt for the train, the report’s authors said. The improvement would reduce the federally subsidized railroad’s operating loss by 30 percent, or $136.6 million, they concluded.
“A large number of travelers who had previously used other modes would choose to travel by rail if it was reliably on-time,” the report said.
Most of the projected windfall — $111.4 million — would come from increased ticket revenues, though there would be $39.3 million in savings, mostly due to less required overtime because of fewer late trains and lower fuel costs because of less time spent idling, slowing down and accelerating. The total benefit is slightly reduced by incentive payments that Amtrak pays the host railroads for good on-time performance.
Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., had asked the inspector general’s office to study the issue.
“This report puts in real dollars what these delays are costing Amtrak, taxpayers and rail travelers,” Lautenberg said. “Passengers shouldn’t have to miss their meetings or family engagements because a freight train is blocking the tracks.”
Amtrak is chronically late on routes where the company operates on tracks owned by the freight railroads. That includes most of its network outside the Northeast Corridor.
The company’s on-time record is far better on the Northeast Corridor between Washington and Boston, where Amtrak owns most of the tracks. There, trains arrived on time about 86 percent of the time last year. Other short-distance “corridor” trains outside the Northeast arrived on time 66 percent of the time.
The problem on the shared tracks has worsened in recent years, as freight traffic has soared. Passenger trains move much faster than most freight trains, and in many areas there is only a single track, forcing trains to pull over onto sidings to let trains coming in the other direction pass.
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