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[CNJRoss]

The Washington Post, 8/2:
 

Dr. Gridlock

Amtrak passengers just dodged a major bullet

 

Amtrak riders scored a significant victory last week, and most of them don’t even know it.

 

The federal Surface Transportation Board decided to drop a controversial proposal to allow freight rail to get priority on train tracks … a proposal that had sparked a heated battle of back-and-forth legal arguments over the last seven months.

 

So, what’s the big deal?

 

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[CNJRoss]

The Hill, Washington, DC 8/11:
 

Freight rail industry challenges feds over on-time standards

 

A group representing the freight rail industry is challenging whether a panel of federal regulators has the power to define on-time performance for passenger trains.

 

The Association of American Railroads (AAR) is fighting a rule issued by the Surface Transportation Board (STB) last month that will measure on-time performance by a train’s punctuality at intermediate Amtrak stations.

 

The safety board originally signaled it would define performance based on when a train reaches its end destination, but regulators reversed course by deciding to measure on-time arrivals and departures at all the stations along a train's route.

 

The definition is critical because a 2008 law mandates that if on-time performance averages less than 80 percent for any two consecutive calendar quarters, Amtrak can petition the STB for an investigation into congestion issues and solutions for the delays.

 

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[CNJRoss]

Wall Street Journal, 8/17:
 

Freight Railroads Fight New Rule for Amtrak Trains

Rule requires passenger train on-time performance be determined at each of Amtrak’s stops rather than at the end of its route

 

Freight railroads are challenging in federal court a new stricter way of measuring on-time performance for Amtrak trains, the latest wrinkle in a battle over how far freight trains must go to enable passenger trains to arrive on time.

 

Currently Amtrak’s on-time arrival report card is below average, at less than 80% systemwide. That rate drops below 56% for long-distance trains.

 

The Association of American Railroads late last week filed documents with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, challenging a new rule issued by the Surface Transportation Board that requires that passenger train on-time performance be determined at each of Amtrak’s stops rather than at the end of its route. The rule is to take effect later this month.

 

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[CNJRoss]

JDSupra, 7/18/17:

Eighth Circuit Strikes Down STB Rules Defining "On-Time" Passenger Performance

 

 

HIGHLIGHTS:

• In Union Pacific Railroad Company v. Surface Transportation Board, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has held that the Surface Transportation Board (STB) exceeded its authority when it promulgated regulations defining what constitutes "on-time performance" when Amtrak operates over lines owned and controlled by freight railroads.
• In the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008 (PRIIA), Congress had delegated to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and Amtrak the joint regulatory authority to promulgate metrics and standards for measuring on-time performance of passenger trains.
• The court presumed that a single term used in two places in the statute had the same meaning – and that Congress likely intended it that way. Because the STB was without statutory authority to define the term, the court concluded that rulemaking had to be set aside. The court held that Congress' intent was in having FRA and Amtrak develop on-time performance, not the STB.

 

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[CNJRoss]

Railway Age, 1/31/19:
 

Amtrak vs. freights: A messy MRSA

 

 

If you’re passionate about on-time performance of Amtrak passenger trains traversing freight railroad tracks, you’d best pray for the health of RBG—the increasingly frail 85-year-old Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

 

If you share with Amtrak’s landlord that Amtrak has become a misbehaving tenant seeking upgrades at no increase in rent, and Ginsburg is present to cast a vote, then hope the freight railroads have a sufficiently strong legal theory to win over Ginsburg or another of the Court’s four liberal-wing justices, who otherwise likely will side with Amtrak. 

 

SNIP  

 

In a late-January filing, freight railroads represented by the Association of American Railroads (AAR) petitioned the Supreme Court to accept and schedule the case for its session beginning in October 2019.

 

The AAR seeks to challenge before the Supreme Court a July 2018 District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that Amtrak may lawfully collaborate with the FRA to set passenger train performance standards that would be binding on privately owned freight railroads. That July 2018 appellate court decision was on remand from the Supreme Court following an earlier AAR challenge.

 

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