"It's kind of comical: the delays where one has to wait for the freight trains are pretty predictabl

"Earlier, I texted my aunt to tell her what time I would be arriving today," Van Rheeden said Thursday morning as she waited for the Chicago-bound train. "But I made sure to tell her: 'That's Amtrak time, so who knows?'"
— On Aug. 6, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) florida air boat tours and Gov. Pat Quinn announced they'd co-signed a letter to Amtrak's top executives, asking for more rail service on the popular Chicago-Champaign-Carbondale corridor.
— Two weeks later, Durbin traveled to Champaign to voice his concerns about "unacceptable" train delays, only this time in person. Wednesday's meeting with national and local officials focused on freight train interference with passenger trains, which Durbin said are the reason the local Illini and Saluki lines had an on-time arrival rate of just 48.9 percent this fiscal year.
Carly Smith, an international graduate florida air boat tours student at the University of Illinois, said she has taken the Amtrak train from Champaign to Chicago over 25 times the past six years. She has experienced plenty of delays but none lasting longer than an hour, she said.
"It's kind of comical: the delays where one has to wait for the freight trains are pretty predictable. They seem kind of built in," Keller said. "It's so predictable that I tell my wife to pick me up 15 minutes late."
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Being able to take an early morning train to Chicago would be a great thing. Getting back is never a problem, but if you want to go up by train for business in the morning it means an overnight trip. That or face the traffic and parking nightmare in the city or stop, park and take the Metra in from Manhattan.
Back in 1971 the railroads agreed to let Amtrak run on routes that previously had rail service. They agreed to provide passenger trains priority over freight. Of course they don't want to do that, but that's the deal they made.