On the Coast Starlight you could arrive 40 minutes before your scheduled arrival time in Los Angeles if there are no delays. That should give you a good idea of the kind of padding they put on these schedules.

As for Amtrak, yesterday I got off the northbound Coast Starlight which was surprisingly on time, we were so on time that we had to wait in Klamath Falls OR for about 1 hour then arrived into Portland 40 minutes ahead of schedule. The train would then continue on to Seattle over an hour later when it was scheduled to depart. Clearly there is some serious schedule padding on the CS schedule. When I took the NEC Regional about a week earlier, it was about an hour late out of NYC for a relatively short run to Boston.

Amtrak is pretty good about compensating for delays through free food. Years ago while heading out on the Sunset Limited the train was hours late leaving LA to begin the journey, so they ordered boxes of KFC for everyone. I remember hundreds of individual KFC meal boxes piled up on a cart behind one of those station “tug” vehicles driving through Union Station.

According to a dining car steward there is an unofficial Amtrak policy of a free snack box for a train later than 3 hours and a free dining car hot meal for a delay longer than 6 hours. Have an ulcer over that one, CBO bean counters and John McCain.

In the UK the train operating companies have published schedules and working schedules. The published schedules include extra minutes to account for delays caused by being held a a signal, or slowed by adverse signals. The working timetable is based on the expected performance given the path allotted, expected delays at junctions and the characteristics of the equipment.

How much different the published schedule is from the working is watched closely; but the two schedules are for precisely the reason you state, to avoid penalty payments for running late. In the UK, the train operators have to meet on-time performance and late running trains can and do lead to penalties under their franchise agreements.

2. It’s easy blaming the freight railroads, but many (not the majority but perhaps as much as 20-30%) delays were Amtrak’s fault, either lack of hustle by the crews, which is endemic, or more seriously, mechanical breakdowns contributed to by lack of maintenance. Look at the on-time performance of the northeast corridor with almost no freights – it’s not great.

3. Freight railroads have an even bigger problem keeping their own trains running on time, although it’s better now than it was. The whole network needs more discipline. If everything is random then scheduled passenger trains are like fish trying to swim up a waterfall. A scheduled railroad uses all assets better and performs better for the customer, freight and passenger.

I think somehow related to this new regulation is also the unfortunate airline-like system of tying a ticket to a specific train (just as Amtrak not having many non-reserved trains anymore). This system inherently reduces the passengers rights, and therefore, these rights have to be strengthened by those regulations.

Another not so fortune consequence may also be that regional trains will be delayed because a delayed intercity train falling under the regulation will be given priority over everything. Current practice is to let the delay of a seriously delayed train increase and give priority to any other on time trains. Of course, that applies essentially for denser traffic and highly loaded lines.