Regulators delve into an Amtrak ‘Sunset Limited’ mystery

WASHINGTON — The Surface Transportation Board has received thousands of pages of documents as part of its investigation into the substandard on-time performance of Amtrak’s Sunset Limited.

And yet regulators still have a mystery on their hands.

The key question they want answered: Which railroads officially host the easternmost 15.5 miles of the Sunset Limited’s 1,997-mile route between New Orleans and Los Angeles?

The board has had a hard time nailing down what should be a simple matter in the Big Easy.

“There is disagreement about precisely which rail carrier hosts Amtrak on a segment of the eastern end of the Sunset Limited’s route,” the STB said in a decision last week. The board ordered Amtrak to address which railroads, exactly, it believes host the triweekly train between Live Oak, La., and New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal.

The answer is important. It will help the board determine which host railroad or railroads in the New Orleans area may be responsible for delaying the Sunset Limited from time to time and contributing to its failure to meet the federal 80% customer on-time performance standard. According to federal regulations, “host railroads are directly accountable to Amtrak by agreement for Amtrak operations over a railroad line segment.”

From an operational perspective, there’s no debate about the actual route the Sunset follows in and out of NOUPT.

The Sunset runs on Amtrak trackage for 3.7 miles from the station to Southport Junction. From there, it’s 2.2 miles over Canadian National’s McComb Subdivision to East Bridge Junction. Between East Bridge Junction and West Bridge Junction, it’s 5.2 miles over the New Orleans Public Belt’s Huey P. Long Bridge. And from West Bridge Junction to Live Oak, it’s 4.4 miles via Union Pacific’s Avondale Subdivision —  or similar mileage when using an alternate route through BNSF Railway’s Avondale Yard.

But here’s where things get murky.

Working timetable west from NOUPT:

• Canadian National says it’s not a host railroad on trackage it leases to NOPB. And it says the Sunset operates over the McComb Sub as a Union Pacific trackage rights train, a practice that dates to the pre-Amtrak days when Southern Pacific operated the Sunset Limited over what was then the Illinois Central. UP acquired SP in 1996, along with the trackage rights. Yet CN and Amtrak have certified the Sunset’s schedule over this CN trackage, which CN dispatches.
• NOPB says it’s not a host railroad, either, and that it does not have an agreement with Amtrak. “NOPB does not control traffic movements on the track it owns or leases on the Sunset route: it dispatches no segment; operates no signals; makes no schedules; and moves no line-haul trains for its own account, save for nighttime service to a single customer,” NOPB told the STB.
• Union Pacific had this to say in a September 2023 filing: “Between West Bridge Jct. and Live Oak … the Sunset Limited moves over track BNSF acquired from Union Pacific in the Union Pacific/Southern Pacific merger. BNSF owns, operates, maintains, and dispatches this segment. Union Pacific has trackage rights over this segment.” In response to STB questions, however, UP in April 2024 corrected itself: “Union Pacific controls the signals and switches in the connecting crossovers at Live Oak” and “Union Pacific owns and maintains the former Southern Pacific main track between Live Oak and West Bridge Junction.” UP did not say it is a host railroad east of Live Oak.
• BNSF says that although it’s not a host of the Sunset between Live Oak and West Bridge Junction, the Sunset moves over the BNSF mainline (former Texas & Pacific trackage it acquired from UP) or over Avondale Yard trackage. BNSF is the sole owner, operator, and dispatcher of this track segment, with the exception of the crossover at Live Oak, which is controlled by UP.
• Amtrak notes that between Live Oak and West Bridge Junction, the Sunset Limited sometimes operates over UP-owned trackage and sometimes operates over BNSF-owned trackage. “Contractually, operating agreements with both railroads address the use of Amtrak’s statutory right to operate Sunset Limited Trains over the segment,” Amtrak says. That language stops short, however, of saying it has a host railroad agreement with either BNSF or UP between Live Oak and West Bridge Junction.

Yet in its initial complaint, Amtrak identified UP as the host railroad for the segment between Live Oak and East Bridge Junction.

The Sunset is routed via BNSF when UP’s line is blocked by freight trains looking to enter the yard or awaiting interchange with other railroads in New Orleans. “BNSF often accommodates the Sunset Limited, as a courtesy for Amtrak, on BNSF main line or yard track in and around Avondale Yard between Live Oak (MP C14.95) and West Bridge Junction (MP B10.5),” BNSF said in a filing.

BNSF has asked to be let off the hook for any delays to the Sunset Limited east of Live Oak, noting that it’s not the host and that the Sunset’s schedule is not certified on any BNSF trackage east of Live Oak.

“While BNSF has trackage between Live Oak and West Bridge Junction, this route is not ideal for accommodating passenger service. The UP route between Live Oak and West Bridge Junction runs on the former SP main line — the legacy route for the Sunset Limited — and avoids the congestion at Avondale Yard,” BNSF told the board.

It then explores the delays inherent in using BNSF trackage between West Bridge Junction and Live Oak, rather than UP’s Avondale Sub: “Amtrak’s skeleton schedule allows for only 7 minutes of pure run time between West Bridge Junction and Live Oak. But BNSF estimates that it would take more than 12 minutes … in a perfect scenario using BNSF main line track through the Avondale Yard, for the Sunset Limited train to travel between Live Oak and West Bridge Junction on the BNSF route. Therefore, even in a perfect scenario where Amtrak runs through Avondale Yard unimpeded using BNSF’s main line track, Amtrak’s conductor would likely log at least five minutes of delay.”

Additional delays — averaging 23 minutes of run time — flow from running on yard trackage, which is unsignaled, has hand-throw switches, and a maximum speed of 10 mph. Along the way, the Amtrak crew has to stop to manually line the switches.

“BNSF’s main line track through Avondale Yard can often be blocked by freight trains that use the Yard for crew changes and interchange deliveries. BNSF freight trains often queue in Avondale Yard because of congestion in New Orleans, including waiting for BNSF’s interchange partners in New Orleans to be able to accept the BNSF train. If a Sunset Limited train is routed through Avondale Yard and the main line is occupied by a BNSF freight train, BNSF will either try to find capacity on yard tracks to clear the main line for the Sunset Limited train, or clear an alternative yard track to allow Amtrak to travel through Avondale Yard. These alternative yard tracks have a reduced speed limit of 10 mph.”

The STB has laid out a schedule to sort out this issue and others as it continues its investigation into Sunset Limited delays. Amtrak’s opening statement is due by Oct. 7. Railroad party replies to the opening statement are due by Dec. 23.

Not mentioned in the STB’s line of questions last week: How Amtrak’s right of preference affects the Sunset’s operation in the New Orleans area.

Amtrak brought the first-of-its-kind case to the STB in December 2022, seeking damages and other relief from UP over what it called the “abysmal” handling of the Sunset.

Amtrak’s filing alleges that during the passenger operator’s fiscal year that concluded in September 2022, and in violation of Amtrak’s statutory right to dispatching preference, the train averaged more than 15 instances of freight train interference per trip, resulting in an average of more than four hours of delays.

The Federal Railroad Administration established on-time performance standards in 2020 — after a lengthy series of court battles — that require 80% of passengers to reach their destination within 15 minutes of the scheduled time [see “Analysis: FRA seeks Amtrak, host railroad scheduling cooperation,” Trains News Wire, Nov. 20, 2020]. Under those standards, the Sunset was the worst-performing train on Amtrak’s network and among the worst-performing in Amtrak history, the company says.