Causes of Service Disruptions and Delays Impacting Sustainable Ridership

General Causes
Even the most sophisticated and best managed railroad can incur, from time to time, service delays and disruptions. Some of these delays/disruptions are caused by events that are beyond the railroad’s ability to control; extraordinary weather, trespassers, or, in passenger service, heavy ridership, ticketing problems, or passenger emergencies are examples. Signaling issues, grade crossing accidents or malfunctions, structural issues, and control system problems, can occur on occasion creating unforeseen disruptions which lie generally outside the control of a railroad.

Other factors contributing to delays and disruptions can be minimalized significantly through routine maintenance and investment; mechanical failure of motive power, rolling stock problems, track defects, and malfunctioning switches are a few examples of issues that can plague railroads with poor maintenance practices and cause service delays or disruptions.

Freight interference, dispatching issues, bottlenecks and insufficient rail capacity, are issues which can lead to significant delays that can be identified and reviewed for mitigation. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has comprehensively reviewed how these issues impact passenger service (specifically Amtrak long distance routes) in a series of reports issued between 2008 and 2012.

According to the FRA, passenger rail services outside the Northeast Corridor (NEC) “operate almost exclusively on infrastructure owned and dispatched by freight railroads ... Amtrak services on routes outside the NEC generally exhibit worse on-time performance (OTP) than Amtrak services on the NEC—where Amtrak largely owns the tracks and dispatches rail traffic.”¹ The FRA identifies four main issues in both its 2008 and 2012 reports which cause substantial service delays: “(1) host railroad dispatching practices, some of which result in preference violations; (2) track maintenance practices and the resulting speed restrictions; (3) insufficient track capacity; and (4) external factors beyond the host railroads’ control.”²

Host Railroad Dispatching Practices
Railroad dispatching is a complicated orchestration to maintain fluidity of traffic. “Each train dispatcher makes hundreds of decisions every day on how to handle the flow of train traffic.”³ Passenger trains entering into host railroads’ domain “must be integrated into the railroads’ current – and future – freight revenue services.”⁴

Integration of passenger rail traffic becomes increasingly difficult if the passenger train is running “out of slot” – or out of its normally scheduled time – and potentially diminishes the passenger train’s priority as freight traffic may be granted to pass in the place of the “out of slot” train. Though Amtrak service is normally given priority over freight traffic (which is required by Federal law), the certainty of Amtrak’s priority is often lost because the scheduled train is out of its scheduled slot. Once the priority is lost, an already late train can be further delayed waiting for freight traffic to clear.

Integration of passenger rail into a freight rail system changes the dynamics of dispatching. “In areas where there is mixed traffic, including different length, speed, and braking conditions, dispatchers plan longer spacing between trains to ensure safe braking conditions. Therefore, areas of track that handle a mix of train types cannot handle as many trains per day and have less track capacity than track sections with traffic of a single train type.”⁵ Because track capacity is reduced in mixed traffic areas, it becomes most important that passenger traffic arrive in its scheduled slot.

Timeliness of Passenger trains entering onto a host railroad’s network is also important because any traffic entering must be anded off between the host railroad dispatchers. This requires cooperation and coordination between the host railroads. Dispatchers receiving trains from another territory have to estimate when a train will be entering their territory or try to obtain this information from a dispatcher working for the adjacent railroad."⁶ Though these hand offs are more common on Amtrak’s long-distance trains where Amtrak’s host railroad may change several times, distance is not a contingent factor; a passenger train that must traverse a busy junction where more than one Class I railroad may intersect, can cross multiple hosts in a short distance.

Track Maintenance Practices and the Resulting Speed Restrictions
Track maintenance practices can have significant impacts upon passenger rail service; the higher frequency of service over an affected section of track, the greater the impact. Track related speed restrictions – “slow orders” – can reduce the speeds of an Amtrak passenger train from its 79 mph top speed to as low as 10 mph.⁷

Slow orders resulting from track maintenance can be planned. Class I freight railroads typically plan their capital projects, which include rail, tie, and ballast work, in advance and will notify their tenants of scheduled maintenance so the tenant railroad can make adjustments. But track defects caused by rail wear, a derailment, or weather can occur at any time and force unplanned maintenance. Sections of track which carry high volume, heavy weight freight trains require more maintenance and are also subject to more unplanned repairs. Slow orders have strong implications for passenger rail which has a very narrow window for on-time performance.

Insufficient Track Capacity
Capacity of a rail corridor can be defined technically as “a measure of the ability to move a specific amount of traffic over a defined rail corridor.’’⁸ This is a deceivingly simple idea however, because capacity is not simply defined by the number of trains and the number of tracks; capacity is also influenced by operating strategy, dispatching, crew, bottlenecks, size and speed of trains, as well as congestion in rail yards. “If the yards are congested then trains are held on line of road and that reduces line-of-road capacity and “burns” crew availability.”⁹ Capacity is a complex issue.

Mixed freight rail traffic reduces capacity, “freight railroads operate their trains in a largely unscheduled, less time-sensitive model and vary the type, length, weight, and speed of their trains to meet customer needs. Because freight railroads operate a mix of scheduled and unscheduled trains, the resulting mix of freight traffic on the tracks varies daily.”¹⁰ The introduction of scheduled passenger traffic, which is typically lighter and faster traffic, can get mired down, as Amtrak often proves, amid freight traffic.

The 2008 and 2012 reports from the FRA examine capacity, the growth, as well as future growth of intermodal traffic as well as train lengthening by freight railroads. Intermodal volume quadrupled between 1980 and 2007, from 3 million trailers and containers to more than12 million.”¹¹ Intermodal traffic has had a dramatic effect on capacity. These trains tend to run at higher speeds and higher priority, and, because of this nature, capacity is reduced.

Conclusion
Sustainable ridership is contingent upon on-time performance, frequency of service, and reliability. If dispatching, track maintenance, and capacity issues are not acknowledged and adequately addressed, the overall performance of the passenger service has not been addressed.

Studies of Amtrak throughout the years give great insight to the vast differences in performance of long-distance trains and regional service in the NEC. “Outside the NEC, where the issue of poor OTP is by far the most apparent, Amtrak owns approximately 100 miles of track and primarily runs on rail lines owned and dispatched by freight railroads.”¹² Freight traffic interference due to capacity, slow orders due to maintenance, and dispatching practices are the common reasons given for poor OTP. “Achieving reliable and improved OTP would increase Amtrak’s ridership and therefore its revenues and reduce its operating costs. Travelers who have the option to choose among transportation modes can readily choose to take the train if they become more confident that it will arrive on time. This makes revenues relatively responsive to changes in OTP.”¹³ Ultimately, passenger rail service operations cease because of revenue. Revenue is dependent upon ridership and overall cost benefit to the public. Cost benefit and ridership are dependent upon performance; if performance fails, so does the service.