Rail Passenger Fairness Act

I 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 2937 To permit Amtrak to bring civil actions in Federal district court to enforce the right set forth in section 24308(c) of title 49, United States Code, which gives intercity and commuter rail passenger transportation pref- erence over freight transportation in using a rail line, junction, or cross- ing. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES APRIL 30, 2021 Mr. PAYNE introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned A BILL To permit Amtrak to bring civil actions in Federal district court to enforce the right set forth in section 24308(c) of title 49, United States Code, which gives intercity and commuter rail passenger transportation preference over freight transportation in using a rail line, junction, or crossing. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:08 Jun 09, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2937.IH H2937 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 2937 IH SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Rail Passenger Fair- 2 ness Act’’. 3 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 4 (1) Congress created Amtrak under the Rail 5 Passenger Service Act of 1970 (Public Law 91– 6 158). 7 (2) Amtrak began serving customers on May 1, 8 1971, taking over the operation of most intercity 9 passenger trains that private, freight railroads were 10 previously required to operate. In exchange for as- 11 suming these passenger rail operations, Amtrak was 12 given access to the national rail network. 13 (3) In return for relief from the obligation to 14 provide intercity passenger service, railroads over 15 which Amtrak operated (referred to in this section 16 as ‘‘host railroads’’) were expected to give Amtrak 17 passenger trains preference over freight trains when 18 using the national rail network. 19 (4) In 1973, Congress passed the Amtrak Im- 20 provement Act of 1973 (Public Law 93–146), which 21 gives intercity and commuter rail passenger trans- 22 portation preference over freight transportation in 23 using a rail line, junction, or crossing. This right, 24 which is now codified as section 24308(c) of title 49, 25 United States Code, states, ‘‘Except in an emer- 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:08 Jun 09, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2937.IH H2937 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 2937 IH gency, intercity and commuter rail passenger trans- 1 portation provided by or for Amtrak has preference 2 over freight transportation in using a rail line, junc- 3 tion, or crossing unless the Board orders otherwise 4 under this subsection. A rail carrier affected by this 5 subsection may apply to the Board for relief. If the 6 Board, after an opportunity for a hearing under sec- 7 tion 553 of title 5, decides that preference for inter- 8 city and commuter rail passenger transportation ma- 9 terially will lessen the quality of freight transpor- 10 tation provided to shippers, the Board shall establish 11 the rights of the carrier and Amtrak on reasonable 12 terms.’’. 13 (5) Many host railroads have ignored the law 14 referred to in paragraph (4) by refusing to give pas- 15 senger rail the priority to which it is statutorily enti- 16 tled and giving freight transportation the higher pri- 17 ority. As a result, Amtrak’s on time performance on 18 most host railroads is poor, has declined between 19 2014 through 2019, and continues to decline. 20 (6) According to Amtrak, 6,500,000 customers 21 on State-supported and long-distance trains arrived 22 at their destination late during fiscal year 2019. 23 Nearly 70 percent of these delays were caused by 24 host railroads, amounting to a total of 3,200,000 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:08 Jun 09, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2937.IH H2937 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 2937 IH minutes. The largest cause of these delays was 1 freight train interference, which accounted for more 2 than 1,000,000 minutes of delay for Amtrak pas- 3 sengers, or approximately 2 years, because host rail- 4 roads chose to give freight trains priority. 5 (7) Poor on-time performance wastes taxpayer 6 dollars. According to a 2019 report by Amtrak’s Of- 7 fice of Inspector General, a 5 percent improvement 8 of on-time performance on all Amtrak routes would 9 result in $12,100,000 in cost savings to Amtrak in 10 the first year. If on-time performance on long-dis- 11 tance routes reached 75 percent for a year, Amtrak 12 would realize an estimated $41,900,000 in operating 13 cost savings, with a one-time savings of 14 $336,000,000 due to a reduction in equipment re- 15 placement needs. 16 (8) Historical data suggests that on-time per- 17 formance on host railroads is driven by the existence 18 of an effective means to enforce Amtrak’s preference 19 rights: 20 (A) Two months after the date of the en- 21 actment of the Passenger Rail Investment and 22 Improvement Act of 2008 (division B of Public 23 Law 110–432), which included provisions for 24 the enforcement of these preference rights, was 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:08 Jun 09, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2937.IH H2937 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 2937 IH enacted, the on-time performance of long-dis- 1 tance trains improved from 56 percent to 77 2 percent and Class I freight train interference 3 delays across all routes declined by 40 percent. 4 (B) One year after such date of enactment, 5 freight train interference delays had declined by 6 54 percent and the on-time performance of 7 long-distance trains reached 85 percent. 8 (C) In 2014, after some of the provisions 9 in the Passenger Rail Investment and Improve- 10 ment Act of 2008 related to enforcement of 11 preference were ruled unconstitutional by a 12 D.C. Circuit Court, long-distance train on-time 13 performance declined from 72 percent to 50 14 percent, and freight train interference delays in- 15 creased 59 percent. 16 (D) The last time long-distance trains 17 achieved an on-time rate of more than 80 per- 18 cent in a given month was February 2012. 19 (9) As a result of violations of Amtrak’s right 20 to preference, Amtrak has been consistently unable 21 on host railroad networks to meet its congressionally 22 mandated mission and goals, which are codified in 23 section 24101 of title 49, United States Code (relat- 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:08 Jun 09, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2937.IH H2937 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 2937 IH ing to providing on-time and trip-time competitive 1 service to its passengers). 2 (10) Amtrak does not have an effective mecha- 3 nism to enforce its statutory preference right in 4 order to fulfill its mission and goals. Only the Attor- 5 ney General can bring a civil action for equitable re- 6 lief in a district court of the United States to en- 7 force Amtrak’s preference rights. 8 (11) In Amtrak’s entire history, the only en- 9 forcement action initiated by the Attorney General 10 was against the Southern Pacific Transportation 11 Company in 1979. 12 (12) Congress supports continued authority for 13 the Attorney General to initiate an action, but Am- 14 trak should also be entitled to bring a civil action be- 15 fore a Federal district court to enforce its statutory 16 preference rights. 17 SEC. 3. AUTHORIZE AMTRAK TO BRING A CIVIL ACTION TO 18 ENFORCE IT PREFERENCE RIGHTS. 19 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 24308(c) of title 49, 20 United States Code, is amended, by adding at the end the 21 following: ‘‘Notwithstanding sections 24103(a) and 22 24308(f), Amtrak shall have the right to bring an action 23 for equitable or other relief in the United States District 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:08 Jun 09, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2937.IH H2937 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 2937 IH Court for the District of Columbia to enforce the pref- 1 erence rights granted under this subsection.’’. 2 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 24103 of 3 title 49, United States Code, is amended by inserting ‘‘and 4 section 24308(c)’’ before ‘‘, only the Attorney General’’. 5 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:08 Jun 09, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H2937.IH H2937 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS