Time’s Up (Mostly) In Extended Late-Trains Case

By Jim Mathews / President & CEO

The ultra-extended investigative and fact-finding portion of the Surface Transportation Board’s late-trains investigation of Sunset Limited host Union Pacific is set to end on Friday, the 23rd, and on Monday the STB signaled to all parties that now it’s time to start to wrap up the first phase of its probe.

Since the STB agreed to take up the case more than a year ago, the parties – Amtrak, Union Pacific, BNSF, CN, CPKC, the New Orleans Public Belt Rail Corp. (NOPB), and the Southern California Rail Road Authority (SCRRA) – have together asked eight times for extensions to the discovery process for unearthing and sharing information that will figure into each side’s case.

While it did not categorically rule out any further extensions, on Monday the STB’s formal decision setting up the schedule for the rest of the proceeding made it clear that Board members expect everyone to be ready to file their motions this Fall: “the procedural schedule for pleadings will not be tolled or extended absent a Board order, and any further extensions will be disfavored.”

Amtrak was directed to have its opening statement brief filed by October 7th, and the host railroads have until December 23 to reply. Non-party replies will be due on January 22, 2025, and Association members, donors, and supporters should know that we expect to file such a reply to the docket. The host railroads have until February 21st to reply to all the briefs filed in the case.

STB wants each party in their filing to address their individual understanding of the terms “preference” and “host railroad carriers,” although the Board will give parties other than Amtrak the opportunity to say in their briefs that they take no position on the definition of those terms. STB also expects the parties to address their position on the Board’s authority to impose damages.

It's hard to understate just how important this proceeding is for anyone who cares about making our trains run on time. This will be the first time that a regulator will actually apply the metrics and standards guaranteeing passengers’ rights to be on time, which themselves only took effect at the end of 2020 after some 15 years of litigation that included two trips to the Supreme Court.

Fortified by those strong new customer-service rules, Amtrak filed a blunt attack in late 2022 on the pervasive delays plaguing long-distance trains, fingering dispatching practices and the reliance on extra-long freight trains driven by precision-scheduled railroading, or PSR. Sunset was to be the test case.

A lot has happened since then. UP has made real improvements to the Sunset’s timekeeping – good enough that the Sunset made the Federal Railroad Administration’s “most-improved” list. The Justice Dept. has opened a second front on late trains and preference, filing a civil action in a D.C. Federal Court against Norfolk Southern alleging preference violations on Amtrak’s Crescent route. And the U.S. Supreme Court clipped the authorities of Federal agencies like the Federal Railroad Administration and the STB in its Loper Bright Enterprises decision on Chevron Deference, although there are distinct differences in how the Loper Bright reasoning would be applied to STB versus the FRA.

If you’re tired of getting stranded on late trains, you really need to keep up with this very arcane case. Rest assured that your Association is doing that on your behalf.

(NOTE: We've included links in the text to help you get more information and context. If you don't click those links, you won't get that additional information. Go ahead and click!)