High court: Amtrak like gov’t agency in helping set rules (USRA redux?)

Associated Press ^ | Mar 9, 2015 12:04 PM EDT | Sam Hananel

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A unanimous Supreme Court ruled Monday that Amtrak is more like a part of the government than a private corporation when it helps federal agencies craft rules to keep trains running on time.

But the justices said it’s up to lower courts to decide whether Congress gave the passenger rail company too much power to develop standards that other private railroads must follow.

A 2008 law directs Amtrak to work with the Federal Railroad Administration to create standards that let Amtrak keep priority over freight trains along common railroad tracks. That upset the freight railroad industry, which argues that Amtrak is a private organization that could not regulate competitor’s actions. …

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Federal regulations have already resulted in multiple Class 1 railroads being whittled down to a mere five. A step like this would certainly push things closer to Woodrow Wilson’s United States Railroad Administration.

[i_robot73]

Example # where I cannot lay my finger upon the verbiage that We the People voted upon to authorized Congress to relinquish the powers given by We the People.

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Espeically delegating legislative power to the Executive Branch, which destroys separation of powers and hence the Constitution.

I thought in the past that Amtrak and Conrail working together would result in USRA II, but instead it took private crony corporations to head to this point.

[i_robot73]

Amazing, no, how simple the English in the Declaration and Constitution, yet, those in D.C. and on/in the courts just can’t seem to fathom the meaning?

And, unfortunately, I don’t see a return on the horizon...nor, a non-bloody way back when it does come back around.

IMHO, the RR began the nose-under-the-tent, the highway system was next and the progression kept on keeping on.