ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, December 14, 1996 TAG: 9612160019
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
It took intervention by Amtrak, but Norfolk Southern Corp. has resumed regular maintenance of railroad tracks in North Carolina between Raleigh and Greensboro.
The move comes less than a month after state officials and officials with North Carolina Railroad Co. said NS had all but stopped maintaining the railroad tracks used by Amtrak's Carolinian and Piedmont passenger trains.
``We told them we'd sit down and discuss it with them and have agreed to do the work necessary to remove the slow orders as a result of the concerns expressed by Amtrak,'' said Bob Fort, a spokesman for Norfolk Southern.
Those trains, plus Norfolk Southern's own freight trains, operate along 317 miles of track between Morehead City and Charlotte. The tracks are owned by the North Carolina Railroad.
NS stopped most track maintenance in July after a lease agreement with North Carolina Railroad was ruled invalid in court. A judge ruled that the lease, which required NS to perform maintenance and pay the NCRR $8million annually in rent, lacked a necessary quorum of private shareholders when it was approved a few months earlier.
Although Norfolk Southern officials said the change posed no safety threat to rail passengers or its own freight train workers, railroad critics disagreed.
The two companies have yet to work out a new agreement.
When the lease was invalidated, NS stopped making $600,000 rent payments to NCRR, 75 percent of which is owned by the state. Of more concern to state officials was a decision to stop repairs, such as realigning rails or replacing ties.
LENGTH: Short : 39 linesby CNB