Rail Passenger Fairness Act

II 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 2922 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 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES NOVEMBER 20, 2019 Mr. DURBIN introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation 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 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Rail Passenger Fair- 4 ness Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:13 Nov 26, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2922.IS S2922 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •S 2922 IS SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 1 (1) Congress created Amtrak under the Rail 2 Passenger Service Act of 1970 (Public Law 91– 3 158). 4 (2) Amtrak began serving customers on May 1, 5 1971, taking over the operation of most intercity 6 passenger trains that private, freight railroads were 7 previously required to operate. In exchange for as- 8 suming these passenger rail operations, Amtrak was 9 given access to the national rail network. 10 (3) In return for relief from the obligation to 11 provide intercity passenger service, railroads over 12 which Amtrak operated (referred to in this section 13 as ‘‘host railroads’’) were expected to give Amtrak 14 passenger trains preference over freight trains when 15 using the national rail network. 16 (4) In 1973, Congress passed the Amtrak Im- 17 provement Act of 1973 (Public Law 93–146), which 18 gives intercity and commuter rail passenger trans- 19 portation preference over freight transportation in 20 using a rail line, junction, or crossing. This right, 21 which is now codified as section 24308(c) of title 49, 22 United States Code, states, ‘‘Except in an emer- 23 gency, intercity and commuter rail passenger trans- 24 portation provided by or for Amtrak has preference 25 over freight transportation in using a rail line, junc- 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:13 Nov 26, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2922.IS S2922 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •S 2922 IS tion, or crossing unless the Board orders otherwise 1 under this subsection. A rail carrier affected by this 2 subsection may apply to the Board for relief. If the 3 Board, after an opportunity for a hearing under sec- 4 tion 553 of title 5, decides that preference for inter- 5 city and commuter rail passenger transportation ma- 6 terially will lessen the quality of freight transpor- 7 tation provided to shippers, the Board shall establish 8 the rights of the carrier and Amtrak on reasonable 9 terms.’’. 10 (5) Many host railroads have ignored the law 11 referred to in paragraph (4) by refusing to give pas- 12 senger rail the priority to which it is statutorily enti- 13 tled and giving freight transportation the higher pri- 14 ority. As a result, Amtrak’s on time performance on 15 most host railroads is poor, has declined between 16 2014 through 2019, and continues to decline. 17 (6) According to Amtrak, 6,500,000 customers 18 on State-supported and long-distance trains arrived 19 at their destination late during fiscal year 2019. 20 Nearly 70 percent of these delays were caused by 21 host railroads, amounting to a total of 3,200,000 22 minutes. The largest cause of these delays was 23 freight train interference, which accounted for more 24 than 1,000,000 minutes of delay for Amtrak pas- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:13 Nov 26, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2922.IS S2922 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •S 2922 IS sengers, or approximately 2 years, because host rail- 1 roads chose to give freight trains priority. 2 (7) Poor on-time performance wastes taxpayer 3 dollars. According to a 2019 report by Amtrak’s Of- 4 fice of Inspector General, a 5 percent improvement 5 of on-time performance on all Amtrak routes would 6 result in $12,100,000 in cost savings to Amtrak in 7 the first year. If on-time performance on long-dis- 8 tance routes reached 75 percent for a year, Amtrak 9 would realize an estimated $41,900,000 in operating 10 cost savings, with a one-time savings of 11 $336,000,000 due to a reduction in equipment re- 12 placement needs. 13 (8) Historical data suggests that on-time per- 14 formance on host railroads is driven by the existence 15 of an effective means to enforce Amtrak’s preference 16 rights: 17 (A) Two months after the date of the en- 18 actment of the Passenger Rail Investment and 19 Improvement Act of 2008 (division B of Public 20 Law 110–432), which included provisions for 21 the enforcement of these preference rights, was 22 enacted, the on-time performance of long-dis- 23 tance trains improved from 56 percent to 77 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:13 Nov 26, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2922.IS S2922 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 5 •S 2922 IS percent and Class I freight train interference 1 delays across all routes declined by 40 percent. 2 (B) One year after such date of enactment, 3 freight train interference delays had declined by 4 54 percent and the on-time performance of 5 long-distance trains reached 85 percent. 6 (C) In 2014, after some of the provisions 7 in the Passenger Rail Investment and Improve- 8 ment Act of 2008 related to enforcement of 9 preference were ruled unconstitutional by a 10 D.C. Circuit Court, long-distance train on-time 11 performance declined from 72 percent to 50 12 percent, and freight train interference delays in- 13 creased 59 percent. 14 (D) The last time long-distance trains 15 achieved an on-time rate of more than 80 per- 16 cent in a given month was February 2012. 17 (9) As a result of violations of Amtrak’s right 18 to preference, Amtrak has been consistently unable 19 on host railroad networks to meet its congressionally 20 mandated mission and goals, which are codified in 21 section 24101 of title 49, United States Code (relat- 22 ing to providing on-time and trip-time competitive 23 service to its passengers). 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:13 Nov 26, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2922.IS S2922 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 6 •S 2922 IS (10) Amtrak does not have an effective mecha- 1 nism to enforce its statutory preference right in 2 order to fulfill its mission and goals. Only the Attor- 3 ney General can bring a civil action for equitable re- 4 lief in a district court of the United States to en- 5 force Amtrak’s preference rights. 6 (11) In Amtrak’s entire history, the only en- 7 forcement action initiated by the Attorney General 8 was against the Southern Pacific Transportation 9 Company in 1979. 10 (12) Congress supports continued authority for 11 the Attorney General to initiate an action, but Am- 12 trak should also be entitled to bring a civil action be- 13 fore a Federal district court to enforce its statutory 14 preference rights. 15 SEC. 3. AUTHORIZE AMTRAK TO BRING A CIVIL ACTION TO 16 ENFORCE IT PREFERENCE RIGHTS. 17 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 24308(c) of title 49, 18 United States Code, is amended, by adding at the end the 19 following: ‘‘Notwithstanding sections 24103(a) and 20 24308(f), Amtrak shall have the right to bring an action 21 for equitable or other relief in the United States District 22 Court for the District of Columbia, or in any jurisdiction 23 in which Amtrak resides or is found, to enforce the pref- 24 erence rights granted under this subsection.’’. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:13 Nov 26, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2922.IS S2922 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 7 •S 2922 IS (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 1 24103(a)(1) of title 49, United States Code, is amended, 2 in the matter preceding subparagraph (A), by striking ‘‘of 3 this subsection’’ and inserting ‘‘and subsection 24308(c)’’. 4 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:13 Nov 26, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S2922.IS S2922 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS