WASHINGTON — Amtrak and Union Pacific have reached a settlement in their dispute over performance of the Sunset Limited and have asked the Surface Transportation Board to end its investigation into the train’s handling.
A filing today (July 31, 2025) from Amtrak asks that the STB case — the first of its kind regarding host-railroad handling of a passenger train — be terminated, and says that all parties to the investigation except Canadian Pacific Kansas City have consented to the move.
The filing offers few details on the settlement, saying only that that “Union Pacific has made commitments regarding the Sunset Limited’s customer on-time performance and has further agreed to consequences if it does not meet those commitments.” It also said UP personnel who deal with Amtrak will receive “continuous education and training … to understand their responsibilities to Amtrak under federal law,” and that the two sides have agreed on a process to certify a schedule for the train.
“Amtrak therefore believes that the parties have achieved an outcome … fully consistent with the purposes of an investigation” under the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008, the filing says.
Amtrak asked the STB to investigate what it called the “abysmal” on-time performance of the Sunset in December 2022, saying many of the delays of a train that had quarterly on-time performance rates as low as 7% over the previous year were “attributable to UP corporate decisions, operational practices, or failures that result in systemic violations of Amtrak preference rights.” [See “Amtrak asks federal regulators to investigate …,” Trains News Wire, Dec. 9, 2022.
It was the first such case ever brought under a provision of the PRIAA, requiring the STB to develop its approach to handling the case, which it did in a July 2023 decision [see “STB announces investigation …,” July 11, 2023]. That decision laid out a two-stage process, with the first determining if a host railroad had failed to provide Amtrak with operating preference, and the second dealing with damages and other potential actions.”
Two years later, that investigation was still in its first stage, as “the parties engaged in party-led discovery and multiple rounds of briefing addressing various questions posed by the board,” as the Amtrak filing notes.
In its request to dismiss, Amtrak thanks the board and its staff for their work on the case, and says it appreciates “the good faith efforts of all parties, including Union Pacific, to examine the underlying performance issues on the Sunset Limited and to work collaboratively on solutions to drive sustained improvements.”
While Amtrak’s initial filing focused on Union Pacific, the STB included all parties that served as host railroads for the Sunset, no matter how briefly. That led to the involvement of BNSF Railway, Canadian National, CPKC, LA’s Metrolink, and the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad.
BNSF and CN need to do the same thing. Unless you are an intermodal or special shipment freight trains should never get high clearance over Amtrak. The railroads are in violation of the national passenger rail of 1975 and the stagger’s at the 1994. Both of these walls say that intermodal traffic and Amtrak gets top priority if you are a dog freight or a grain train you must take the siding to let the intermodal trains and Amtrak pass same for coal trains. If you stack the deck and place five mile long dog freights on the line you will tie up traffic and Amtrak in these intermodal trains cannot get through always keep the rails open for Amtrak and intermodal they get top priority freights must stop.
We have that same darn issue on the B.C and Seattle to Eugene line. Constant delays from freight trains. The one-time rate is horrible on the Cascades corridor.
Is it a coincidence that this announcement comes AFTER UP has announced its intention to acquire NS? Hmm! I guess UP did not want not to have this case before the STB when they submit their merger application. Call me a conspiracy theorist, if METRA and UP suddenly settle their ongoing dispute, too.
I was thinking the same thing!! “UP announces settlement with METRA” Should be any day now.