WASHINGTON — The Surface Transportation Board says it is on schedule to issue a decision by early summer in the Sunset Limited on-time performance case, the first Amtrak has brought against a host railroad.
“As we begin 2025, we do so having achieved marked progress on the Sunset Limited on-time performance (OTP) investigation, a critically important matter,” STB Chairman Robert E. Primus said in a statement today.
Amtrak filed the case in December 2022, arguing that Union Pacific freight train interference caused the Sunset Limited’s on-time performance to fall well below minimum standards that were established in 2020. During the worst quarter in the complaint period, which runs from October 2021 through September 2022, some 90% of the Sunset’s passengers arrived late, Amtrak says.
UP acknowledges that its service was poor due to widespread crew shortages that congested the railroad in late 2021 and 2022. But it says Amtrak has failed to prove that Sunset delays were caused by violations of the passenger train right of preference. UP also notes that the Sunset’s schedule has not been certified to meet the Federal Railroad Administration’s minimum performance standards.
Amtrak filed its opening statement in the first phase of the case in October 2024. The host railroads issued their replies to the opening statement in December.
The STB notes that an on-time performance investigation is designed to determine whether and to what extent delays or failures to achieve minimum standards are due to causes that could reasonably be addressed by Amtrak or the host railroad.
As part of the Sunset Limited probe, the STB has investigated more than 1,000 individual delays to the Sunset Limited trains, which operate between New Orleans and Los Angeles. UP hosts the triweekly train for 1,770 miles of its 1,994-mile route.
“Last August the agency set forth a robust and ambitious procedural schedule with the hopes of rendering a final determination in this matter by early summer 2025,” Primus said. “We are on track to achieve this goal and will continue to progress toward the mark.”
