On time? Almost never

Amtrak's signature California runs can't exactly boast of perfect on-time service. In fact, according to the AP, the Coast Starlight and California Zephyr are almost never on time:

Coast Starlight, which runs between Seattle and Los Angeles, had an on-time performance of 4 percent in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30. For the California Zephyr, connecting Chicago and San Francisco, the figure was 7 percent. In the current fiscal year, the California Zephyr has not once arrived on time. "The resulting damage to Amtrak's brand, reputation and repeat business is potentially devastating," Amtrak's former acting president, David Hughes, wrote in a letter last summer to the federal Surface Transportation Board.

Amtrak blames the booming freight business (they share the rails) for the delays. Freight train traffic has also be an issue in expanding Metrolink commuter rail service in Southern California.

A few years ago, Kurt Streeter and Mitchell Landsberg of The Times wrote a fascinating piece on how rail works in L.A. They noted: "Altogether, more than 35,000 trains, many of them longer than a mile, course through the region every year, carrying considerably more than $100 billion worth of goods and 60 million passengers."

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