Passenger Trains > STB urges mediation in Amtrak-CN contract renewal dispute

Highlights from the Article:

One major sticking point in the dispute is when to define whether a train is operating on time.
CN wants that definition to be limited to endpoints whereas Amtrak wants it to apply to all intermediate stations.
Another issue that has had the two parties are loggerheads involves incentive payments and penalties.
CN wants to maintain the status quo and lengthen Amtrak schedules if sufficient infrastructure doesn’t exist to make schedules realistically achievable.'
CN has demanded that incremental costs paid by Amtrak include delays to its freight trains caused by the presence of Amtrak trains.

Link follows: https://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2019/08/13-stb-urges-mediation-in-amtrak-cn-contract-renewal-dispute

CN wants to treat Amtrak as they do VIA Rail west of the corridor. 

joemvcnj Wrote:
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> CN wants to treat Amtrak as they do VIA Rail west
> of the corridor. 

VIA is treated pretty good when you consider the Canadian is 6 trains per week (and really only 4....the 2 Canadians between VAN & EDM only do better).....of the nearly 500 other VIA trains per week mostly dispatched by CN.

Yes I know there was a meltdown in the Corridor last weekend.....but VIA had posted there would be planned track-work including one area reduced from 3 tracks down to 1 (and they were also dealing with a suicide)

CN treats VIA "Canadian" "pretty good"? Odd, that's not what crew, passengers (including myself)  and media says. Endless documented delays caused by priority given to freight trains (witnessed by myself on a VIA Canadian Vancouver-Toronto trip). Canadian almost never arrives at end points on time. Delays freqently on the order of 10-18 hours. A very good example of how CN and other freight railroads would treat Amtrak if legal protections, as weak as they are, were not in place for Amtrak.

John Webb
Trinidad, CA

I hope that Amtrak does not give CN even an inch.  CN has to be the worst operating railroad Amtrak works with.  Endless daily delays.  OT performance is very poor.  Operating schedules are VERY slow, comparing them to 1960.  

I hope the STB comes down hard on CN.

Winnemucca Wrote:
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> CN treats VIA "Canadian" "pretty good"? Odd,
> that's not what crew, passengers (including
> myself)  and media says.

Did you not read my post?? I said CN treats VIA pretty good when you consider the Canadian is only 4 (or 6) trains per week of the nearly 500 other trains CN dispatches for VIA.

ghCBNS Wrote:

> Did you not read my post?? I said CN treats VIA
> pretty good when you consider the Canadian is only
> 4 (or 6) trains per week of the nearly 500 other
> trains CN dispatches for VIA.

I did say west of the Corridor. Canadian and Skeena passengers, the only VIA Rail passengers on the CN west of Toronto, are not much interested in the corridor when they are 10 hours late after having the running time stretched 20 hours over the past 10 years.