The title might become an actuality some day.
On Thursday, Senator Dick Durbin (IL) introduced Rail Passenger Fairness Act, which would allow Amtrak to sue the freight railroads if passenger trains don’t get priority.
[This bill] helps improve Amtrak on-time performance (OTP) in Illinois and around the country by providing Amtrak with the ability to take the freight railroads to court in order to enforce current law, which requires freight railroads to provide preference to passenger rail operating on their rail lines. The Rail Passenger Fairness Act would provide Amtrak with the ability to sue the freight railroads to enforce its statutory preference.
Last month, Amtrak published a report from its Office of the Inspector General (OIG) that found that nationwide, Amtrak’s trains were late 27 percent of the time in Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 and nearly 60 percent of those delays were due to freight interference.
“This bill provides Amtrak with the power to improve its passenger rail service and efficiency,” Durbin said. “By empowering Amtrak to hold the freight railroads accountable when they don’t follow the law, we can improve Amtrak on-time performance and save taxpayer dollars. For too long, we’ve seen on-time performance decline as a result of freight interference. The people of Illinois – and Amtrak riders nationwide – deserve assurance that they can arrive at their destination in a safe and timely manner.”
“Some railroads over which Amtrak operates have ignored the passenger preference law for far too long, delaying our customers by more than 1 million minutes last year,” said Amtrak President & CEO Richard Anderson. “Thank you, Senator Durbin, for introducing the Rail Passenger Fairness Act. It is a critical piece of legislation and we look forward to working with Congress to advance its consideration. This bill puts people first and helps us get our customers where they want to go on-time.”
Durbin has consistently taken an active role in holding Canadian National (CN) accountable for repeated freight interference and speed restrictions that have plagued the Illini/Saluki route with some of the worst OTP in the country.