CPKC Earns Amtrak’s Best Host Railroad Award Again

CPKC earned Amtrak’s Best Host Railroad award for a tenth consecutive year after sustaining an A-level host grade across passenger services operating on sections of its U.S. rail network.

Ten-year run at the top of Amtrak’s host ranking

The official CPKC announcement⁠ says the 2025 recognition extends a run of industry-leading A-level grades earned by CPKC and Canadian Pacific before it.

Tony Wick, CPKC’s general manager transportation, hosted Amtrak officials at the U.S. Operations Center in Kansas City, Missouri, on July 24. Tamara Noel, Amtrak’s assistant vice president for host railroads, presented the plaque.

“We appreciate what you do to keep Amtrak trains on time,” Noel said, crediting the CPKC team’s commitment and attention to detail.

How Amtrak measures host performance?

Amtrak’s Host Railroad Report Card⁠ ranks the largest freight host railroads according to delays that passengers experience while their trains use host tracks.

The December 2025 report⁠ recorded 609 minutes of CPKC-responsible delay per 10,000 train-miles for the month and 796 minutes for the most recent 12 months. Both figures were below the 900-minute ceiling for an A grade.

The Best Host Railroad award uses this distance-based measure rather than a simple count of late trains.

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Five passenger services use CPKC-hosted sections

CPKC hosts portions of five Amtrak services. Empire Builder and Borealis together run four times daily between Minneapolis and Chicago, while Hiawatha Service provides 12 daily trains between Milwaukee and Chicago.

Ethan Allen Express operates twice daily between New York City and Burlington, Vermont. Adirondack also operates twice daily, linking New York City and Montreal.

Because CPKC hosts only portions of these routes, the award describes its support for Amtrak while trains are on the company’s network, not their end-to-end punctuality across every railroad. The 2025 plaque recognizes a continuous decade of A-level host performance spanning Canadian Pacific and CPKC.

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