WASHINGTON — The parties in the dispute over Amtrak’s effort to launch Gulf Coast service have asked the Surface Transportation Board to extend the period for board-sponsored mediation by 30 days.
In a joint motion filed Wednesday, Aug. 24, by CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern, Amtrak, and the Alabama State Port Authority, the parties say “an additional 30-day period of mediation would be productive as they seek to reach an amicable resolution of this matter.”
The original 30-day mediation period over Amtrak’s proposal for two daily round trips between New Orleans and Mobile, Ala., is scheduled to expire today (Aug. 25).
The STB ordered 30 days of mediation in a June 10 decision, although it said at the time it “will not hold the underlying proceeding in abeyance” [see “STB grants Amtrak access …,” Trains News Wire, June 11, 2022]. Since that time, the board has extended the deadline for filing supplemental evidence from July 13 to July 27, and set Aug. 31 as the deadline to for the parties to respond to those supplemental evidence filings.
The board has yet to schedule the resumption of hearings on the Gulf Coast case after holding 11 days of sessions, most recently on May 12 [see “Oberman: Gulf coast litigants still need to fill in the blanks,” News Wire, May 13, 2022].
So far I’m looking at this as strike on against Oberman…a lot of talk and no action, at some point in time you have to assert your authority, show the railroads who’s in charge(and it shouldn’t be them). I’d have put my foot down, ended the proceedings, ruled in Amtrak’s favor and ordered the RR’s to spend their own damn money on improvements.
Maybe Amtrak actually likes the delay as of now it will not have the operationally equipment to start the route?
This is potentially precedent-setting too, Amtrak does have dumpster fires all over it’s National Network, and state supported routes, but cave-in or lose this, and you can kiss any expansion goodbye.
Mr. Pilcher, if Amtrak cannot or will not put out the “dumpster fires” you correctly cite, for sure we “can kiss any expansion goodbye”. Of course, if the “dumpster fires” put an end to the LDs, Gardner will have lots of equipment and crews to re-deploy to the no frills short to medium hauls he and Board Chair Coscia feel far more comfortable operating.
Would I be too cynical, Mark, if I say it’s a lose-lose-lose proposition? If Amtrak expands, we lose. If Amtrak stays the same, we lose. If Amtrak contracts to a smaller network, we lose.
For 52 years, we rail advocates, NARP/ARP members, TRAINS MAG readers, have been following Amtrak, making suggestions, and hoping for better days. All we’ve gotten for it is seven-car Superliner transcons that once were ten or eleven car Superliners, while the airline networks in the West and South have grown and grown.
Nothing says Amtrak more than the strings of Siemens cars parked laid-up under the Chicago post office, never having seen service. I see these from METRA-BNSF, METRA being down 50% in ridership.
While Amtrak has its issues, in this particular case its the host railroads that are being somewhat obstinate.
Put this issue to bed already and concentrate on running the National Network. Runs are being cancelled in Illinois; Michigan and California to name a few. How in the world can Amtrak accomplish running Mobile-New Orleans when these other problems continue to exist.