To the editor:

Lately, traveling by Amtrak trains on freight railroads from Lawrence and across the country has become more challenging. Here’s why.

Roughly 72 percent of all miles traveled by Amtrak occur on tracks hosted by other rail providers. In 2008, Congress gave a federal board the power to penalize these providers for giving dispatch priority to freight trains using the same routes. Amtrak pays these hosts for its services and provides incentives for on-time performance. As a result, Amtrak’s reliability and ridership continued to pick up until July 2013.

In July 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit, ruled that it is unconstitutional for Amtrak to participate in setting performance standards. This decision triggered the start of Amtrak’s on-time performance decline because it severely damaged Amtrak’s leverage with the freight rail companies.

Now the Supreme Court, in its next session beginning in October, has agreed to hear an appeal of the 2013 decision.

Hopefully, the court will see the wisdom of returning to the 2008 act of Congress that brought Amtrak to the table to help set the standards of reliability. Then, Carrie Hall’s family (Public Forum, Aug. 1), my family and everyone can again arrive safely and on time using Amtrak. And, with more successes, we can improve schedules and add more trains. By the way, rental cars are available in Garden City and Dodge City (daily) and in La Junta, Colo., (except Sundays).