The Canadian National railroad says Amtrak’s poor on-time performance for trains using their track is not entirely its fault.
Senator Dick Durbin is blaming Canadian National for giving preference to its freight trains and causing delays that made Amtrak’s Illini and Saluki trains late 51 percent of the time, since October First.
But Canadian National spokesman Patrick Waldron says some delays are caused not by them, but by Amtrak.
“Those figures incorporate delays not attributable to, or involving, CN. Delays leaving the station, or delays as a result of Amtrak equipment problems, or even delays that result from the Amtrak train not getting to the CN route on time.”
But Amtrak spokesman Marc Maglieri says delay reports from Amtrak conductors posted on their website show that Canadian National was responsible for most of the problems causing delays.
The two sides give differing numbers for on-time performance. Amtrak is renewing its complaint over Canadian National delays with the federal Surface Transportation Board. Amtrak’s earlier complaint was put on hold while the two sides tried to negotiate a solution, but Maglieri says those talks went nowhere.