The Aug 9 issue of Destination Freedom contains several items of interest, relating to topics that have been discussed here recently. They include a report on Kerry's campaign train (with a great photo), a comparison of the Republican and Democratic platforms on transportation, and a very interesting report on the the on-time incentive payments Amtrak makes to the host railroads.The latter was particularly interesting, anda few numbers stood out. In FY '03, Amtrak paid $74 million to the host railroads per contract obligations such as access rights and other services provided by the host railroads. These are the "incremental costs" of letting Amtrak run on their tracks.
On top of that Amtrak paid $25 million in incentive payments, but the article does not indicate how they were distributed. Nor does it make mention of penalties collected. On the whole, though, incentive payments counted for about 25% of total payments to the railroads.
However, if most or all of Amtrak trains were delivered on time, the host railroads would have received a total of $86 million. In other words, if most or all the trains ran on time, Amtrak would pay the host railroads more than twice as much as they get under the basic contract.
Here's the link. http://www.nationalcorridors.org/df/df08092004.shtml
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