U.S. Senator Dick Durbin is calling for renewed efforts to end delays on Amtrak routes in Illinois.
The Democrat met Wednesday in Champaign with the chairman of the federal Surface Transportation Board to discuss Amtrak’s poor on-time performance caused by the priority given to freight trains.
He says 2014 has seen some of the worst, particularly the Illini and Saluki trains running from Chicago… through Champaign to Carbondale. They were late more than 50-percent of the time this past fiscal year.
Durbin says Canadian-National, which owns the routes, continually shows a lack of cooperation. Durbin says the Surface Transportation Board and its Chairman, Dan Elliott, are ready to take action, but need more authority:
“There’s been a change. Now we have to help him. We have to create the laws that give him the force of law behind his decision making. But we at least have an effort underway that wasn’t before – to try to hold these railroads accountable.”
Elliott says Amtrak will ask the STB to re-file a case with the US Supreme Court over on-time performance. Durbin says passage of the next federal transportation bill next year will strengthen precedence for Amtrak on the freight lines it uses.