STB Dismisses Amtrak’s Late-Trains Case Against Union Pacific

By Jim Mathews / President & CEO

As Union Pacific gears up to merge with Norfolk Southern, the Surface Transportation Board yesterday took a significant step toward clearing the decks for the deal by dismissing Amtrak’s 2022 late-trains claim against Union Pacific.

Amtrak itself asked STB to dismiss the case, after the passenger railroad secured a settlement with UP involving on-time performance guarantees, unspecified penalties for missing those on-time markers, additional and continuous compliance training for UP employees, and a process to certify – finally – the Sunset Limited’s schedule.

“The Board has long encouraged the private resolution of disputes through voluntary negotiations whenever possible,” STB said in its order and decision closing the proceeding. “No necessary parties object to Amtrak’s request to dismiss the proceeding, which was initiated by the Board on Amtrak’s complaint.”

Although CPKC, the recently merged Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern railway, did not object to the dismissal, it made a point of filing to the docket a letter to note that “CPKC wished to avoid any implication that its consent constituted assent to the undisclosed terms of Amtrak’s confidential arrangements with Union Pacific.”

STB Chair Patrick Fuchs praised the settlement in a prepared statement yesterday.

“I want to recognize the excellent, expert work of Board staff to evaluate the extraordinary amount of evidence in the Sunset Limited proceeding, and I am confident that this work has positioned the agency to deliver strong results for the public in any future passenger rail proceeding,” Fuchs said. “More broadly, this case shows that parties can privately settle even the most complex and extensively litigated matters, and I continue to encourage parties to Board proceedings to intensify their efforts to collaboratively resolve disputes.”

The Board accepted Amtrak’s proposal that the case be dismissed “with prejudice,” a legal term which only means that the case is now closed and can’t be brought again. It also means that while the settlement itself can probably be seen as a guide for handling future disputes, the STB won’t really get a chance to rule on the overall merits of the case.

After a half-century of the law – 49 U.S.C. § 24308(c) – being on the books, there will still be no precedent set for what it actually means when it says Class I hosts must give Amtrak “preference over freight transportation in using a rail line, junction, or crossing.”