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CED-77-67 1 (1977-06-08)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaackp0001 and id is 1 raw text is: 
                                                                 CED -7 7'- 7





               REPORT TO THE CONGRESS



  .\\\ D  1],

:       ,      BY THE COMPTROLLER GENERAL

,, v .,        OF THE UNITED STATES


                                                                     LM102749





               Amtrak's Incentive Contracts

               With Railroads--

               Considerable Cost, Few Benefits


               National Railroad Passenger Corporation


               Since July 1974 Amtrak, under its perform-
               ance incentive contracts with 10 railroads, has
               spent $32.6 million to improve ontime per-
               formance and $1.5 million to improve main-
               tenance quality. Ontime performance has
               improved mainly because of a more liberal
               definition of ontime and because of loos-
               ened schedules, not because of the incentives.
               Incentives have had virtually no effect on
               improving the quality of equipment mainten-
               ance. Maintenance problems have hampered
               Amtrak since 1971.
               Amtrak recently signed new incentive con-
               tracts with three railroads and has reached
               tentative agreements with five others. Al-
               though Amtrak has reduced the running time
               of many trains and increased the percentage
               of trains which must be ontime before incen-
               tive payments are made, some problems still
               exist. For example, some railroads will not be
               penalized for poor ontime performance and
               the preventative maintenance provision does
               not give the railroads an incentive to improv
               mainte6                     U    ) '/O 0 9    E8

               CED-77-67                 . :      00     N    E 81 1977