Railroad Timetable from 1887 Found to Be More Accurate Than Current Amtrak Schedule

A transportation historian at Purdue University has published a comparative analysis showing that the Pennsylvania Railroad's 1887 timetable was significantly more accurate than Amtrak's current published schedule, despite operating with technology that predates the automobile, the airplane, and indoor plumbing. Dr. Florence Trestle's paper, 'Temporal Reliability in American Rail: A 139-Year Regression,' analyzed on-time performance data from the Pennsylvania Railroad's New York-to-Chicago corridor in 1887 and compared it with Amtrak's equivalent Lake Shore Limited service in 2025. 'The Pennsylvania Railroad achieved 94 percent on-time performance using coal-fired steam locomotives, hand-thrown switches, and telegraph-based dispatching,' Dr. Trestle said. 'Amtrak, with diesel-electric locomotives, computerized dispatching, and GPS tracking, achieves approximately 52 percent. The data suggests that American rail service peaked in the Gilded Age and has been declining since.' The Pennsylvania Railroad's 1887 timetable promised an 18-hour journey from New York to Chicago. It delivered, consistently, in 18 hours. Amtrak's Lake Shore Limited is scheduled for 19 hours and 30 minutes but regularly arrives in what Amtrak customer service describes as 'the 22-to-25-hour range, depending on conditions.' 'What conditions?' Dr. Trestle asked. 'The 1887 trains operated through blizzards, across wooden trestles, without air brakes. They were on time because being late was considered a moral failing. The stationmaster would have resigned in shame.' Amtrak has contested the comparison, noting that it 'operates on freight railroad-owned infrastructure and is subject to dispatching decisions beyond its control.' Dr. Trestle noted that the Pennsylvania Railroad owned its own tracks, which she called 'a business model that someone at Amtrak should perhaps consider.'