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The Justice Department said Tuesday it filed a civil lawsuit against Norfolk Southern, alleging the company knowingly created large delays for Amtrak passengers traveling between New York and New Orleans.
Though federal law requires Norfolk Southern freight trains to allow Amtrak passenger trains to proceed first, the Justice Department alleges the rail company “regularly fails to do so, leading to widespread delays that harm and inconvenience train passengers, negatively affect Amtrak’s financial performance, and impede passenger rail transportation.”
“Americans should not experience travel delays because rail carriers break the law. Our action today alleges that Norfolk Southern violates federal law by failing to give the legally required preference to Amtrak passenger trains over freight trains,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
Norfolk Southern said it has worked with Amtrak and states to expand passenger service and is committed to complying with the law.
“Over the past several months with Amtrak, we have focused on the on-time performance of the Crescent passenger train. We hope to resolve these concerns and continue to make progress together,” spokesperson Tom Crosson said in a statment.
According to the complaint filed in a federal court in Washington, DC, on January 1, an Amtrak train 10 miles outside of New Orleans was delayed for nearly an hour when Norfolk Southern dispatchers required it to travel behind a slow-moving freight train. On another occasion, dispatchers made an Amtrak train wait over an hour while allowing three separate freight trains to pass, officials said.
“In many cases, Norfolk Southern runs freight trains along the Crescent Route that, due to track limitations, are so long they cannot move to the side for passenger trains to pass them,” the Justice Department said in its news release.
Norfolk Southern has been under federal scrutiny in another case: the February 2023 derailment of one of its trains in East Palestine, Ohio.
The Environmental Protection Agency and the Justice Department in May reached a $310 million settlement agreement with Norfolk Southern over the derailment, which spilled more than a million pounds of hazardous chemicals into the soil, water and air in the community.
The derailment ignited a dayslong inferno, spewed poisonous fumes into the air, killed thousands of fish and left residents wondering if it’s safe to live in East Palestine.
In the weeks following the disaster, officials said tests showed the air quality and municipal water were safe. But some residents reported a variety of health problems after the derailment, including rashes, nausea, bloody noses and trouble breathing.
During an all-day hearing last month in the town, hosted by the National Transportation Safety Board, criticism focused on the railroad’s advocating for a controlled explosion and burn of five tank cars full of vinyl chloride, a toxic chemical, three days after the derailment.
Norfolk Southern told public officials who authorized the controlled burn, known as a vent and burn procedure, that it was the only way to prevent a catastrophic and uncontrolled explosion. But the NTSB staff and board members insisted at the hearing that was not the case.
CNN’s Chris Isidore and Holly Yan contributed to this report.
