A couple of years ago, I believe August of 2008, there was a very high level meeting of people from Amtrak and UP and some federal agencies, IIRC, and lawsuits were threatened and rules were made etc and about the same time the economy tanked and the freight traffic on the coast line dropped rather dramatically. So, along with the new rules, the lessening of traffic, and the retention of padding in the schedules, the Coast Starlates began arriving not just on time, but early most days in Salinas. Southbound #11 almost always is at least 20 minutes early but northbound #14 tends to run maybe 1/2 hour or so late. If there are major weather problems, then the trains can be late, but in general the OTP is pretty good the last 2 years.
C.