Two legal cases in the news this summer will have an impact on freight- and passenger railroads. To get some perspective on both, RailPrime Senior Editor Julie Sneider interviewed Jim Mathews, president and CEO of the Rail Passengers Association, which acts as a voice for Amtrak, commuter and transit passengers.
The most recent case involves Norfolk Southern Railway, which on July 30 was sued by U.S. Department of Justice for allegedly delaying passenger trains on Amtrak's Crescent route. NS controls 1,140 miles of the 1,377-mile route, which runs between New York City and New Orleans.
NS handles dispatching all trains along that segment, including the freight trains it operates. About 266,000 passengers traveled on the Crescent last year, but only 24% of southbound Crescent Route passenger trains traveling on NS-controlled track arrived at their destination on time, DOJ officials said in a press release announcing the lawsuit.
Federal law requires freight “host” railroads like NS to give Amtrak trains preference over freight trains when sharing the same track. But the DOJ alleges that NS regularly fails to do so, "leading to widespread delays that harm and inconvenience train passengers, negatively affect Amtrak’s financial performance, and impeding passenger rail transportation.”
The second case that could impact the rail industry involves the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo. In its ruling, the court overturned the so-called Chevron deference, which involves the ability of federal agencies — such as the Surface Transportation Board or Federal Railroad Administration — to rely on the expertise of their staff to clarify regulations. In this video Q&A, Mathews shares his views on what the DOJ case and SCOTUS Chevron ruling could mean for the rail industry.
