Please, say it ain’t so, Norfolk Southern. Tell the Justice Department they are looney tunes—that you don’t belong on the FBI’s Most Wanted List for allegedly intentionally and habitually delaying Amtrak’s Crescent route between New York City and New Orleans. Tell Attorney General Merrick Garland, who personally spoke out against you July 30, when the Justice Department served you with a federal civil citation, that his barking bloodhounds and pin-striped-suit-wearing minions with badges, guns and warrants have the wrong guy.
Good grief, this can’t be so. The Crescent was Norfolk Southern predecessor Southern Railway’s showcase passenger train when introduced in 1925 as the Crescent Limited—its livery (including motive power) two shades of polished Virginia Green, with gold lettering. Legendary railroad artist Howard L. Fogg immortalized the Crescent in an oil painting.
Between New York and Washington, D.C., the Crescent was handled by the Pennsylvania Railroad. For part of the trip through Dixie on its way to New Orleans—known as Crescent City—the Crescent was briefly entrusted to a few smaller connecting railroads who knew better than to create even a minute’s delay on a train priding itself as running “on the advertised” (time).
The Crescent was so beloved by Southern Railway that when Amtrak was created in 1971 to relieve freight railroads of the crushing expense of operating money-losing intercity passenger trains, Southern President W. Graham Claytor Jr. (1967-1977) refused to part with the Crescent—not turning it over to Amtrak until 1979.
Claytor, who would later be Amtrak’s president (1982-1993), said in choosing to continue operating the Crescent and several other passenger trains, that while it would be a $3 million annual drain, Southern couldn’t have bought for under $5 million the favorable goodwill generated. Few congressional hearings at which Southern Railway executives testified didn’t begin without a lawmaker recounting a favored trip aboard the Crescent. A single fresh rose decorated each dining car table, with a grits-and-gravy breakfast special available every morning between 1925 and the Amtrak handover in 1979.
The allure of the Crescent was such that Claytor’s successor, L. Stanley Crane (1977-1980), when he became Conrail’s chairman (1981-1988), changed the livery of a Conrail-blue business car and iconic GG-1 locomotive pulling it to the Crescent’s Virginia Green.
Comes now the Justice Department with a civil complaint filed in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia July 30 alleging Norfolk Southern “delays passenger trains on Amtrak’s Crescent Route in violation of federal law.” The Justice Department’s action was in response to a May 19, 2023 letter from Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner to Attorney General Garland (download below):
Of the 266,000 passengers riding the southbound Crescent (Train 19) in 2023—boarding and deboarding at 33 stations on the 1,140-mile route between New York and New Orleans—only 24% arrived on time, alleges the Justice Department. But according to Amtrak’s own public statistics, in Calendar Year 2023, the Crescent was on time 57%—and Norfolk Southern did better with other long-distance trains, and received an overall “B–” host railroad score. None of the Class I’s met the Federal Railroad Administration minimum 80% on time standard.
Citing federal law requiring Norfolk Southern (and all other railroads) to give Amtrak passenger trains preference over freight trains, the Justice Department alleges, “Norfolk Southern regularly fails to do so, leading to widespread delays that harm and inconvenience train passengers, negatively affect Amtrak’s financial performance, and impede passenger rail transportation.” Several examples are cited in the complaint, such as a single hour-long delay Jan. 1, 2023, when Norfolk Southern dispatchers “required” the Crescent to “travel behind a slow-moving freight train.”
Attorney General Garland said in a press release, “Americans should not experience travel delays because rail carriers break the law. The Justice Department will continue to protect travelers by ensuring that rail carriers fulfill their legal obligations.”
The Justice Department complaint also quotes Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg: “For half a century, federal law has required freight rail companies to give Amtrak passenger rail service preference on their tracks—yet compliance with this important law has been uneven at best. We will continue to engage the railroad industry and work with Amtrak to ensure that freight railroads comply with their legal obligations and that Amtrak customers are not subjected to unacceptable, unnecessary and unlawful delays.”
“Thanks to our collaborative relationship with Amtrak and our state partners, Norfolk Southern has taken a leading role in the industry to expand passenger rail service,” said a Norfolk Southern spokesperson in a statement to Railway Age. “We are committed to complying with the law, working together, and honoring our commitments. Over the past several months with Amtrak, we have focused on the on-time performance of the Crescent passenger train. We hope to resolve these concerns and continue to make progress together.”
Railway Age Capitol Hill Contributing Editor Frank N. Wilner is author of “Amtrak: Past, Present, Future,” available from Simmons-Boardman Books at www.railwayeducationalbureau.com, 800-228-9670.
Editor’s Commentary: To Buttigieg and Garland: This is a silly waste of time, if you ask me. When are you going to quit banging on America’s Freight Railroads with the business end of a crescent wrench? Besides, you received Amtrak’s letter more than a year ago, and you’re acting on it now? And you’re picking on one train? One railroad? If no Class I meets FRA’s 80% on time standard, why aren’t you suing them all? Smells like pure politics. Total nonsense. – William C. Vantuono
