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Ground Transport

Court rules Amtrak can no longer set rail performance standards

Tom Schoenberg

Photo Credit: Three freight trains run into Amtrak territory in Chicago.  Flickr / vxla

Skift Take

The government has a considerable stake in Amtrak, but the rail’s for-profit business model mandates that it be considered a private company, years after its leaders drafted national rail standards.

Amtrak’s role in setting on-time performance standards that could trigger U.S. investigations of railroads whose trains get in its way are unconstitutional, a federal appeals court ruled. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington today said Congress had improperly delegated to Amtrak, a private corporation, the power to draft performance standards that affected companies whose tracks the passenger carrier uses. Amtrak trains have legal priority

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