The Surface Transportation Board (STB) has established the Office of Passenger Rail (OPR), effective Oct. 1, 2022, that will investigate and analyze issues regarding Amtrak on-time performance (OTP).
Establishing the Office of Passenger Rail follows more than a year of preparatory work that included the formation of passenger rail working group that was charged with developing plans to enhance the STB’s capacity to fulfill its passenger rail oversight efforts and to ensure it will fully meet its obligations to enforce OTP requirements.
STB senior staff member, Neil Moyer, and an attorney from the STB’s Office of Proceedings, Ryan Lee, were appointed to develop and begin to implement a comprehensive plan for OTP investigation processing and resource allocation. STB reports Moyer and Lee worked with the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Volpe National Transportation Systems Center to develop data tools to quickly analyze FRA’s on-time performance quarterly data.
STB will be hiring a director for the new office and the agency is also in the process of creating a passenger rail advisory committee under the Federal Advisory Committee Act to advise the Bboard on passenger rail transportation issues.
“The creation of the Office of Passenger Rail is the next step in a carefully planned strategy for the Board to meet its responsibility to investigate and enforce Amtrak on-time performance,” said Chairman Martin Oberman. “The agency stands ready to handle any on-time performance cases that are filed. We are fully analyzing the quarterly data provided by the FRA, and we are developing a basis for determining whether any Board-initiated investigations may be necessary. The other Board members and I look forward to working closely with Amtrak and the freight railroads in the nation’s effort to improve its passenger rail system.” Chairman Oberman added, “I want to extend my many thanks to Mr. Moyer and Mr. Lee for their excellent work as the development team for this new office.”
The responsibility to investigate causes of substandard passenger rail OTP is authorized under section 213 of the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act (PRIIA). Under certain eligible complaints, STB is required to investigate passenger rail OTP and identify relief measures.
The Federal Railroad Administration and Amtrak agreed in late 2020 that a Customer OTP metric with a minimum standard of 80 percent of passenger arrivals at stations to occur within 15 minutes of the scheduled time for any two consecutive calendar quarters would be used to measure passenger rail OTP. Complaints may be brought by Amtrak, by an entity for which Amtrak operates intercity passenger rail service, by an intercity passenger rail operator or by a host freight railroad over which Amtrak operates.
In a statement following STB announcing the establishment of the Office of Passenger Rail, Amtrak said it welcomed the news and vowed to participate in the new passenger rail advisory committee.
“Amtrak welcomes the Board’s enhanced focus on Amtrak on-time performance, an important issue for our service reliability and something our customers have a right to expect. We look forward to working closely with the STB’s new Office of Passenger Rail to enforce the FRA’s performance standards for intercity passenger rail,” the passenger railroad said. “We will also participate on the STB’s new passenger rail advisory committee. This will provide an opportunity for issues to be elevated and resolved before they require an investigation.”
