The sorry state of Amtrak’s on-time performance, mapped
 

Interesting graphics from a Washington Post article.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...rmance-mapped/

Hmmm.... Russian quality? I'd say punctuality on Russian railways is higher than on Amtrak!

"...at Swiss prices?"

Maybe Swiss prices circa 1989, assuming you had the half-price pass. The current price from Zurich airport to Basel SBB is about $42, or 79 cents/mile (the article gives an example of an SBB fare from Zurich - Geneva that's 53 cents/mile).

By contrast, the article suggests that a coach ticket on the Empire Builder from Seattle to Chicago is "hundreds of dollars." A current coach fare for August 21 is $174, or 8 cents/mile. A Superliner Roomette for the same trip is $911 (or 41 cents/mile), which includes meals--so basically, Amtrak compartment fares (at least for this long-haul example) are about 80 percent of Swiss 2nd-class coach seat fares.

Of course, Amtrak is running on rough freight tracks, not the mirror-smooth tracks that the SBB or DB runs on--as noted by the article.

It's true, we once had one of the most-advanced rail systems in the world (and one of the worst road systems)--in the 1800s. The debate about long-haul service, subsidies, etc., is ongoing, but it seems this article is unlikely to add much to it.

The tardiness map graphic is interesting. It confirms my suspicion, and obsessive checking of a (otherwise useful) regional route that runs very nearby: I'm just not going to take Amtrak on that route because adequate reliability is not achieved.

The NE Regional has a slightly higher on-time percentage than Acela... Shame is, they both don't have a truly remarkable on-time percentage.

IME, Amtrak is still the way to go in the Northeast. I love moving quickly from city to city while delays are hitting the airports hard.

Oh indeed. I'm doing a two city trip later this month starting in Baltimore, then going to Philadelphia and New York. I never had any thought besides Amtrak.

California Amtrak Even Worse
 

I commute on Amtrak from San Jose to Emeryville. I have been commuting for over a year now. My experience with Amtrak has been so disappointing. The train is frequently delayed by more than 30 minutes one way. The frustrating part is there is no real time tracking so that I could plan to leave home/office accordingly. Given the car commute being even worse, this is I guess lesser of the evils. I can not wait for the project to be over by year end. When I accepted the project, I thought Amtrak will be cool way to commute. I mean it could be so much better only if its on-time performance was better. I cannot believe Amtrak is just so tardy operations wise.

Also, now that BART is expanding, Amtrak will lose even more customers if it does not put its act together. Compared to BART, the monthly pass is much more expensive but all I get is frustration in return. Same old excuses of train congestion, drawbridge open, train hit somebody all the time. I get it, just show the darn time real time so that people can plan.

There's a sort of real time tracking you can do. If you go to train status, put in your train number, and then enter the station codes one by one (start with the first, to the next) and you can track it as it goes. That'll give you a rough idea.

Or click on the "Track a Train" graphic on Amtrak.com (left side, middle of the page), which displays a live map of the positions of all trains on the system, which can be manipulated in various ways to get the status of a specific train.

Why are people blaming the poor performance of Amtrak. First the people don't want to give it adequate funding for them to do better and then blame them for poor service. Roads are given priority saying funding Amtrak is like promoting socialism. How hypocritical is that.

I'm inclined to blame Amtrak when mechanical issues with a train cause a delay. But when it's the Northeast Corridor's 1930-vintage catenary and track showing its age, I a) have to credit the Pennsylvania Railroad for building infrastructure that's lasted as long as it has, and b) blame Congress for acting as if it will last forever.

The NEC is now throwing off enough of a profit for Amtrak to be able to start rebuilding this route on its own--see, for instance, the segment north of Trenton being upgraded for 160 mph service--but that's going to take a while.

That's a nice ride, if you can make it work--and it sure beats I-880 in a car. I can see why you'd want to do it!

I and colleagues regularly do the Oakland or Emeryville to Davis or Sacramento legs of the Capitol Corridor. It's occasionally delayed, but it would have to be delayed quite a bit to make driving a car a better option (at least, for destinations within walking distance of the Davis or Sacramento stations)--particularly given the current frequency (more-or-less hourly departures until 7 pm), and the ability to use any coach ticket on any train. Those provide enough flexibility that it's not the end of the world if a meeting runs a bit late.

Was happy the MSP - CHI Amtrak 8 Empire Builder was only 3 hours delayed on 07/12/2014 - looking at prior days showed some days train was 5 hours delayed.

The 1930s vintage catenary mostly exists in areas not owned by Amtrak (mostly Metro-North territory). The rest of the corridor (including the part in MA owned by the state) is all modern constant tension catenary.

Not south of NYP (which I should have specified before). As I understand it, that's one key reason why the Acela can't hit 150 mph anywhere between D.C. and NYC.