AMTRAK-P42 said:
I think an hour is a little bit unreasonable. I mean granted UP doesnt treat Amtrak like a passenger train should be treated and I completely agree that maybe 8 of the 10 1/2 hours of a typical sunset delay are directly related to UP's mistreatment of the Sunset. However we must give UP 10% of the doubt. The amount of traffic between Houston and San Antonio, TX is astounding. The tracks just were not made for that amount of traffic. So while I do think maybe imposing fines might be a good direction to go, we have to also look at the other side. By telling UP to allow the sunset to run ontime between these 2 cities (where generally a lot of the substantial delays occur), then UP is loosing money, because simply the only way to allow the sunset to run ontime during this stretch is for UP to cancel trains...and I dont think UP loosing money will be kind in the eyes of the "judge" eathier. Rather, I think some kind of strict agreement should be reached.
I agree that some consideration must be given and obviously there needs to be an allowence for the unexpected, like a derailment or serious weather problems.
On the other hand, in the abscence of an unexpected problem, I for one feel that anything more than 2 hours is unacceptable. Yes you are correct that the amount of traffic currently running on UP is huge, but let's not forget that UP & it's predecessors are partly responsible for the problem. Poor planning has seen them remove alternative tracks and I think that portions of double track were removed years ago.
Additionally UP bears a fare amount of the blame, simply for misjudging the volume of freight. A fair amount of the problem isn't the fact that there isn't enough track, the problem is that there aren't enough crews. Crews are going dead on the law, because they can't get their train into the yard, simply because UP didn't have a crew to take another train out of the yard to make room for the arriving train.
This snowballs down the line creating major havoc. This is one of the bigger problems on the Sunset route. While most RR's have been impacted by a huge increase in freight, UP appears to have missed the boat totally. Yes, every company is out there hiring new crews, but no one is looking to hire the massive amounts that UP is looking for.
So, as TP suggested, Amtrak needs to cut a contract with UP that has some teeth. Amtrak should not have to pay UP anything for a late train that is fully UP's fault and not caused by a Force-Majure issue. However, once delays creep above 2 hours, then I think that UP should have to start paying penalties to Amtrak.
