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Anonymous ID: 914a19 March 17, 2019, 12:03 p.m. No.5737757   🗄️.is 🔗kun

Norfolk Southern : Train War Goes Off the Rails – And Onto Twitter

 

WASHINGTON – A long-running battle between Amtrak and major freight railroads over train delays has entered a new phase of hostilities: fighting about tweets.

 

Amtrak, the national passenger railroad, has taken to using a Twitter handle, @AmtrakAlerts, to tell riders when trains are delayed, including when they are stuck because of freights.

 

That prompted a lawyer for Norfolk Southern Corp. to send a demand late last month to Amtrak: stop tweeting about our trains, or the railroad "will be forced to consider further action."

 

In the letter, the freight carrier disputed a Feb. 16 Amtrak tweet, which said that its Crescent train from New Orleans to New York was running six hours late because of "Norfolk Southern freight train interference along the route."

 

Norfolk Southern said the train was actually delayed when a sleeper car and a dining car decoupled after the train departed New Orleans. It accused Amtrak of putting out "a misleading narrative that operates at the expense of Norfolk Southern's reputation."

 

Amtrak, which claims freight trains are the greatest cause of delays to its riders, didn't back down, firing back a letter this month that accused Norfolk Southern of violating a federal law that gives passenger trains the right of way and reeling off a list of 11 examples of delays since April 2018 it said it had suffered on account of Norfolk Southern.

 

While the Crescent train had suffered a "mechanical issue," more than three hours of additional delay was caused by meeting or following behind eight different Norfolk Southern trains, Amtrak said.

 

"Thank you for following the @AmtrakAlerts Twitter account," Amtrak Vice President William Herrmann wrote in the letter. "Our customers really appreciate these explanations about when and why they are being delayed by a freight train."

 

Norfolk Southern declined a request for comment.

 

Beneath the Twitter spat is an unsettled and difficult challenge for both Amtrak and the nation's freight railroads, whose tracks Amtrak uses for almost all of its passenger service outside of the Northeast.

 

Federal law says that freights must make way for passenger trains, except in emergencies and some other instances. But freight railroads are loath to sideline their own slower-moving trains to let passenger trains pass, especially as keeping to their own timetables takes on increasing importance in the shipping business.

https://www.marketscreener.com/NORFOLK-SOUTHERN-CORPORAT-13802/news/Norfolk-Southern-Train-War-Goes-Off-the-Rails-And-Onto-Twitter-28181829/