WASHINGTON — Amtrak has urged federal regulators to investigate the ongoing tardiness of the Sunset Limited, saying the train’s on-time performance this year falls well short of minimum standards.
The filing this week with the Surface Transportation Board does not mention Union Pacific, which handles the Sunset over nearly all of the train’s route between Los Angeles and New Orleans. The filing also does not break down delays by cause or railroad.
“Recent data continues to demonstrate performance below the minimum standard on this
route and highlights the urgent need for investigation by the Surface Transportation Board,” Amtrak said.
For the first three months of 2023, the customer on-time performance of westbound train No. 1 was 45%, an improvement from the 31% recorded in the fourth quarter of 2022. Eastbound train No. 2’s customer on-time performance was 38% for the first quarter, up from 26% in the prior three months.
“These figures are still nowhere close to meeting the applicable COTP standard,” Amtrak said. “Indeed … the COTP for Sunset Limited trains remained deficient for the sixth consecutive quarter.”
In December, Amtrak filed a complaint and petition that asked the STB to begin an investigation of Sunset Limited performance. The trains’ customer on-time performance was well below 80% for two consecutive calendar quarters, which meets the requirements for a board investigation, Amtrak says.
Union Pacific filed its reply to Amtrak’s petition in January, arguing that the issues with the Sunset derived from a schedule not designed to take the customer on-time performance metric into account. UP requested mediation to help resolve the dispute.
Amtrak responded in early February, arguing against UP’s request for mediation.
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