Passenger Trains > Oh, never mind

Every once in a great while #4 will act the tease, departing Kansas City near to on time only to have everything turn to poo poo for the rest of the trip to Chicago.  Today looked promising, only one little mintue late out of K.C.   It toddled into Chicago at 6:14 pm, down 3 hrs 24 mins, for an average speed of 40.7 mph.  Even at that it turned in a better performance than this morning's River Runner #311, 7 hrs. 51 mins for 280 miles, average of 36.6.   The difference is that you can't accuse the U.P. of getting your hopes up.  The St. Louis-Kansas City trains are never on-time.The avaerage run is probably about seven hours.

Would track maintenance, heat restrictions or freight train congestion be contributing to this sorry Amtrak passenger train performance-?

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