1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

I'm asking you to support legislation that holds freight railroads accountable for honoring Amtrak's right-of-way preference under 49 U.S.C. § 24308, by creating a conductor-initiated reporting mechanism that results in penalties based on evidence the railroad has little room to dispute. Right now, a dispatcher who holds an Amtrak train for freight faces no consequence. Existing enforcement only activates after two consecutive quarters of poor on-time performance, followed by a years-long review of aggregate data, too slow to affect today's decisions. A penalty issued near the time of the incident is what reaches the dispatching calculus: a company can't meaningfully hold someone accountable for a decision made six months ago, especially if they've moved on, but a penalty arriving within weeks stays in recent memory and can change behavior. This isn't a new regulatory form. FRA already documents safety violations and issues civil penalties under 49 U.S.C. § 21301. Applied to § 24308, conductors would log denials in real time with timestamps, FRA or STB would confirm each report, and issue a penalty promptly. Payment and any challenge could be handled in batches, monthly, quarterly, or annually, so disputing 100 penalties at once costs far less than fighting each one individually, for both sides and especially the government. Penalty revenue should fund Amtrak right-of-way investment, consistent with § 24308(f)'s damages authority, as a secondary benefit. The primary goal is making freight dispatching account for Amtrak's priority in real time. I'm asking you to: • Require real-time, timestamped conductor reports of right-of-way denials • Direct FRA or STB to confirm each report and issue penalties • Direct penalty revenue toward Amtrak right-of-way capital investment This enforces a 55-year-old legal obligation using a model that FRA already applies to safety violations.