WASHINGTON — The parties involved in the fight over Amtrak Gulf Coast service want to make one more effort to settle the matter without resuming their hearing before the Surface Transportation Board.
Just five days after the STB issued its schedule for additional hearings, and indicated it could vote on a resolution as soon as Dec. 7, those parties — Amtrak, CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern, and the Alabama State Port Authority — have asked the board to authorize another 30 days of board-sponsored mediation, and delay the hearings.
The joint filing requests mediation beginning Wednesday, Nov. 2, and running through Thursday, Dec. 1, with a stay of board proceedings until Dec. 1.
“The Parties have made considerable progress in their discussions, and expect that the coming weeks, leading up to Dec. 1, will be critical in determining whether a negotiated resolution can be reached,” the joint filing asserts. The last in a series of extensions to board-sponsored mediation had ended Oct. 25.
The STB could grant the mediation request, or theoretically could sponsor mediation while maintaining its planned hearing schedule. But the filing argues “it would be very challenging for the Parties to focus on settlement efforts while also preparing for those proceedings.”
In an Oct. 28 decision, the board had scheduled hearings for Nov. 17-18, which it indicated would conclude a process that had included 11 days of previous hearings, the most recent on May 12 [see “More Gulf Coast STB hearing set …,” Trains News Wire, Oct. 28, 2022]. The board then planned to meet Dec. 7 and said it could “vote on the outcome” at that time.
Coincidentally or otherwise, the request by Amtrak, CSX, NS, and the Port for more mediation was filed Monday — the same day the board released a decision, reached the previous Friday, Oct. 28, that was highly critical of the inability of Amtrak and CN to resolve, even after mediation, a long-running dispute over their operating agreement. In that decision, the board suggested that by leaving resolution the board’s hands, the two parties were choosing “one of the least optimal ways” of settling the matter [see “Regulators scold Amtrak, CN …,” News Wire, Oct. 31, 2022].
— Updated at 1:10 p.m. CDT to correct and clarify timing of joint filing seeking mediation and Board decision on Amtrak-CN case.
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