New York-Boston Acela, Northeast Regional and Vermonter
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Thank you.
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A major bridge project just started. The replacement of the Susquehanna River Bridge in Maryland.
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The freight railroads get away with unlawfully prioritizing freight trains over Amtrak. Thatās the way it always has been and always shall be.
This lawsuit will not stop their behavior, unfortunately, since Norfolk Southern can afford better lawyers than the DOJ.
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The executives of NS can afford the best legal representation but refuse to put a penny towards infrastructure upgrades or quality of life improvements for employees.
Stay tuned for more towns like East Palestine thatāll be destroyed by chemical freight trains which are operated by one crew member who hasnāt slept since 2020.
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WW: Donāt be so sure about the lawyers. My wife worked in the civil division at the Justice Department for quite a while. They often beat big DC firms. Paying for pricey lawyers doesnāt always work out when they face off against the government, especially when the law is pretty clearly not in favor of the folks with cash and the Justice Department is not run by business hacks. Lets wait and see.
It sounds like it will result in a fine.
It will result in a suspended sentence of a slap on the wrist.
The federal judiciary is just an extension of the Federalist Society. This lawsuit is a colossal waste of time.
WWā Blanket judgments arenāt always right. The courts are not yet monolithic. This is not the kind of case SCOTUS is likely to take and we have no idea yet what sort of judge the case will draw.
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I totally agree.
The outcome of federal lawsuits depends not on the law and the facts but on what kind of judge you get.
If this happened in another country we would call it a judicial banana republic.
The funny thing is by law Amtrak and passenger trains are to get priority but this law is never enforced and even if this caseās outcome is favorable to Amtrak, I doubt the status quo will change anytime soon.
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I think part of why it never gets enforced also has to do with how the freight railroads operate MUCH longer trains than they used to without investing in larger siding sections of track.
So essentially, if an Amtrak train and a freight train are approaching each other, the Amtrak HAS to give way because itās the only one that fits on the siding.
Another rail sale. Book now through August 7 for travel from Aug 14/Oct 31.
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That sounds like the type of argument Norfolk Southernās lawyers will make in court.
No doubt itās a winning argument, even if it has no basis in law or fact, since federal judges (whose opinions are written by clerks fresh out of law school, who understandably do not want to jeopardize future in-house career opportunities) tend to rule in favor of corporations.
WWāSorry but clerks do not write opinions, certainly not all of the time. Some judges studiously write their own, some use clerk drafts as a starter, and some use clerk work for much of their opinions. But blanket judgments like this are incorrect.
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Opening date of new (relocated further from downtown) train station in Newport News, VA has been pushed back.
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A center thatās not in the center.
Mobile-New Orleans train update
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There is speculation that Amtrak might introduce a direct Chicago-Miami train later this year.
WASHINGTON ā Circumstantial evidence gleaned from Amtrakās booking site portends mid-November changes to the operation of the Chicago-Washington, D.C. Capitol Limited and the New York-Miami Silver Star. A Trains News Wire review of ticketing availabilities on the two trains indicates tentative plans to combine their operation as a single-level Chicago-Miami train.
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Huh. Donāt those very-long-distance trains suffer from relatively more delays? Wouldnāt this just make that potentially worse? (The train from Miami is delayed, so now the train to Chicago is delayed as wellā¦ and then it becomes more difficult to get the scheduleā¦ uhā¦ back on track.)