A lot of it isn't the fault of Amtrak -- freight companies are legally required to pull off and let Amtrak through, unless the train size exceeds the length of the pull off

As a result, the freight companies just make the typical train longer than any pull off on the route, and they no longer have to yield to passenger rail. The downside is passenger rail becomes fantastically late because they always are the ones to pull off

I think longer trains have more to do with operational costs than not wanting to pull onto a siding. That's just a nice bonus for them. Really surprised this wasn't anticipated when they implemented those rules though.

Amtrak just added a new train from Minneapolis to Chicago to fix this exact issue as delays on the Empire Builder tend to be worst in the plains/mountains, so hopefully you can give them another chance: https://www.amtrak.com/borealis-train

Amtrak owns the tracks from DC to New York (and mostly from New York to Boston too). There’s no freight rail anywhere on that corridor, and Amtrak takes priority over most of the passenger rail on those lines. Service on that route still sucks. My wife and I commuted daily on Amtrak from Baltimore to DC/Wilmington and it was horrible. Barely above a developing country in terms of timeliness and reliability.