Amtrak requests that the Surface Transportation Board compel CSX and Norfolk Southern to grant access to their networks throughout the Gulf Coast of the United States.
Ina Wednesday filing to STB, Amtrak stated that doing so allows it to “make all essential preparations for the reinstatement of Gulf Coast service.”
CSX (NASDAQ: CSX) and NS (NYSE: NSC) want all parties, including Amtrak, to complete a study on how Amtrak’s service may affect freight rail services. The tracks that Amtrak would utilize to travel between the two Gulf Coast cities are also owned by CSX. Meanwhile, Amtrak claims that multiple studies have already been completed and that if the service restoration does not go forward, it will lose federal financing.
Amtrak claimed in a recent filing that it no longer has access to CSX’s rail lines in specific places and that CSX is “no longer engaging with Amtrak to establish a viable arrangement.” As a result, Amtrak requests that the board issue an order forcing CSX and NS to collaborate on granting access to their networks.
The “certain areas” refer to the Choctaw yard in Mobile, which CSX operates. Amtrak wants to use the location as a temporary stopover for its Gulf Coast route. It used to store trains for its Gulf Coast Limited and Gulf Breeze services on that track. According to Amtrak, CSX removed the way in late 2019 while the parties were in talks to restore Gulf Coast service, and CSX “is currently refusing to cooperate on a survey of the site for Amtrak to examine the prospective restoration of the track or determine other options for an intermediate layover track.”
“Amtrak should not have to petition the board to force CSX to do activities that CSX is not only statutorily and contractually bound to execute, but that it had promised Amtrak it would take,” Amtrak attorneys claimed in a filing last Wednesday, October 20.
