Hotline #957: USDOT Shifts Postion on OTP, Boardman Talks Amtrak's Future, WMATA Looks to...

In the second round of comments submitted by Amtrak to the Surface Transportation Board (STB) regarding on-time performance (OTP) measurement for passenger rail, the U.S. Department of Transportation has shifted to back NARP’s position that all stations should be subjected to on-time standards. After an initially ambiguous statement during the initial February 8 deadline, the U.S. DOT seemed swayed by arguments made by Amtrak and passenger rights groups such as NARP. U.S. DOT deputy general counsel Kristin Amerling wrote that the department “shares the view that all passengers, not just those at endpoints, should be the beneficiaries of reliable service.” The Association of American Railroads (AAR) doubled down on their attempts to upend existing standards, claiming that an “all-stations metric would create false positives for investigation because of the back-

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