Justice Department sues freight railroad to improve Amtrak service

The U.S. Department of Justice sued Norfolk Southern railroad this week for causing frequent delays of Amtrak trains, in the latest example of the Biden administration pressing freight carriers to better accommodate passenger service.

The lawsuit is the first time since 1979 that the U.S. government has taken a freight railroad to court for flouting a federal law that gives Amtrak trains priority over freight trains. But it comes at a time when the passenger rail company expects to post its biggest ridership numbers ever this year, and is working to add routes to new cities using money from President Joe Biden’s 2021 infrastructure law.

Amtrak constantly butts heads with freight railroads, which own almost all of the track that the company uses outside of the Northeast Corridor. Before 1971, railroads were required to provide passenger service. Then Congress created Amtrak to allow the financially struggling companies to abandon that line of business, as long as they allowed Amtrak trains to use their tracks and gave them first priority.

The Justice Department said Norfolk Southern failed to follow that law on Amtrak’s Crescent route, which runs between New York City and New Orleans. Last year, southbound trains along the line only arrived at their destination within 15 minutes of the scheduled arrival 24% of the time.

That came even after Amtrak and the freight railroad agreed to add 90 minutes to the scheduled length of the route in 2021, even though no extra stops or extra distance were added to the route.

Norfolk Southern owns or controls 1,140 miles of the 1,377-mile route, including the dispatchers who decide which trains should go first when two trains need to use the same section of track.

The company’s dispatchers have forced Amtrak trains to pull onto sidings to allow freight trains to pass, required them to follow slower freight trains, blocked Amtrak stations with freight trains, and switched crews on their own trains while Amtrak trains were waiting behind them. The railroad industry’s move to longer trains—some of which now stretch two or three miles—also appears to be a factor, as the Justice Department said that Norfolk Southern is running trains that are too long to fit into sidings, where they could pull over to allow faster trains to go by. That forces Amtrak trains to follow slower freight trains.

“Americans should not experience travel delays because rail carriers break the law. Our action today alleges that Norfolk Southern violates federal law by failing to give the legally required preference to Amtrak passenger trains over freight trains,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland in a statement. “The Justice Department will continue to protect travelers by ensuring that rail carriers fulfill their legal obligations.”

The lawsuit said that Norfolk Southern’s actions “undermine the goal of public investment in passenger rail service.”

“Federal funds provided to Amtrak not only sustain operations; they also aim to expand routes and services and reduce congestion on highways and in air transportation through efficient, reliable train transportation,” the Justice Department lawyers wrote. “These goals cannot be fully realized if Norfolk Southern continues to violate [the law] by failing to give Amtrak’s passenger trains preference over freight transportation as required by law.”

Norfolk Southern said it is working to improve on-time performance of Amtrak trains.

“Over the past several months with Amtrak, we have focused on the on-time performance of the Crescent passenger train,” Norfolk Southern spokesperson Tom Crosson told The Associated Press. “We hope to resolve these concerns and continue to make progress together.”

But Jim Mathews, the president and CEO of the Rail Passengers Association, said the group was “appreciative” that the Biden administration was working to address the problem.

“By law, Amtrak has the right to preferential dispatching for its trains, and has had this right since 1973. Unfortunately, Amtrak is entirely dependent on the DOJ for enforcement action of this right, which has only happened once before today, way back in 1979,” he said. “That means tens of millions of American passengers have been waiting for decades for relief from these host railroad-caused delays.”

“Dispatching Amtrak trains so that they are late more than 80% of the time—month after month, year after year—cannot be explained by bad weather, or supply chain disruptions, or any other operational vagaries,” he added. “This is especially true now that the trains’ schedules have been certified by both the host railroad and by Amtrak. We encourage the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to move forward with all due haste.”

The Justice Department’s lawsuit against Norfolk Southern comes just two months after the agency reached a $310 million settlement with the freight carrier for environmental and health harms caused by the derailment of one of its trains carrying toxic chemicals in East Palestine, Ohio, in February 2023.

The Biden administration also sided with Amtrak in a dispute with Norfolk Southern and CSX over restarting twice-daily service on the Gulf Coast route between New Orleans and Mobile, Alabama. Amtrak stopped providing the service after the rail line was damaged in Hurricane Katrina 17 years ago because the freight railroads wanted Amtrak to foot the bill for major track renovations along the 120-mile route. At one point, CSX estimated that the cost of those improvements would be $440 million.

The freight railroads and Amtrak reached a last-minute settlement in that dispute. The details are not public, but the Federal Railroad Administration announced last year that it would give Amtrak and its partners $178.4 million to improve signals, upgrade road crossings and get stations ready for service along the route. The improvements, the FRA said, would not only serve passenger rail but would improve freight rail performance along the corridor, too.

The Mobile City Council is expected to vote next week to provide funding and allow for the opening of a train station there. If the measure passes as expected, Amtrak service along that route could start by next spring.