Amtrak win in Court

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Saturnalia
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Amtrak win in Court

Unread post by Saturnalia »

http://www.railwayage.com/index.php/reg ... channel=40
On March 9, 2015, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Department of Transportation v. Association of American Railroads, No. 13-1080, 575 U.S. ___ (2015) (DOT v. AAR), a case closely watched in the railroad industry and by those interested in the Constitutional separation of powers issues posed by the case.
The Court held that Amtrak is a governmental entity for purposes of determining the validity of the metrics and standards under Section 207 of the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008 (PRIIA). Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the opinion joined by seven other Justices, including Justice Samuel Alito, who concurred with a separate opinion. Justice Clarence Thomas concurred in the result, but not the reasoning and offered a lengthy concurring opinion with a free-ranging separation of powers discussion.
There is much more in the article at the link above.
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SousaKerry
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Re: Amtrak win in Court

Unread post by SousaKerry »

So this means.........?? :?:
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railohio
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Re: Amtrak win in Court

Unread post by railohio »

It means Amtrak can work with the FRA to determine standards for on-time performance.
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AARR
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Re: Amtrak win in Court

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For long distance trains "on-time" for Amtrak means for every 50 or 100 or whatever miles 5 or 10 or whatever minutes is added to the Arrival Time. So a train from Pontiac to Chicago that is supposed to arrive at 5pm could arrive at 5:30 and Amtrak would still count this as "on-time".

Despite this Amtrak's long-distance trains do not do very well. They were improving for a few years but the last couple have regressed. There are some exceptions to these trends.

Ironically, the Pontiac-Chicago trains which are relatively short compared to other Amtrak routes has one of the poorer on-time performances. Apparently most of that is due to congestion on NS's line from Porter(?) IN to wherever they exit to complete their journey into Chicago station.
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