CEOs meet in Chicago for a brief ceremony

CHICAGO –  Amtrak President and CEO Stephen J. Gardner this week congratulated Canadian Pacific (CP) for earning an industry-leading “A” grade for the sixth consecutive year on the annual Amtrak Host Railroad Report Card, which ranks freight railroads for keeping Amtrak trains on-time. Gardner presented the host railroad award to CP President and CEO Keith Creel at Amtrak Chicago Union Station.

“We’re proud of the Amtrak-CP partnership and we applaud you and your team’s continued commitment to providing outstanding service to our passengers. Congratulations on six years straight as Amtrak’s best performing host railroad,” Gardner said.

“CP is honored to receive this recognition of the success we have achieved as a host railroad providing industry-leading service to Amtrak on our lines,” Creel said.

In January, Amtrak and CP announced an agreement committing to maintaining CP’s industry-leading role as a host railroad and to cooperating with Amtrak to implement its long-term strategic vision to bring new and expanded intercity passenger rail service to the Midwestern and Southern U.S.

“Given CP’s consistent record as an Amtrak host, we are supporting CP’s proposal to expand its network in a merger with Kansas City Southern,” Gardner added.

“CP is pleased to continue to support Amtrak and its infrastructure projects to provide capacity needed to accommodate additional service and thankful to Amtrak for its support of our historic combination with Kansas City Southern,” said Creel.

In addition to its strong dispatching performance from its Minneapolis-based rail traffic control center, CP was the first Amtrak host to certify schedules to measure on-time status at each Amtrak station.