49 U.S.C. § 24902 — Goals and requirements

(a) Managing Costs and Revenues. Amtrak must manage operating costs, prices, and other factors with the goal that each fiscal year’s Northeast Corridor passenger revenues between the District of Columbia and Boston equal at least that year’s operating costs. (b) Project priorities. When choosing and scheduling projects, Amtrak must use these priorities: (1) complete safety work first because passenger and user safety is paramount; (2) complete work benefiting more passengers before work benefiting fewer; (3) emphasize reliable intercity passenger service; (4) meet this section’s trip-time requirements when compatible with the first three priorities; (5) do improvements that repay their investment through lower operating or maintenance costs before other improvements; (6) schedule construction to inconvenience as few passengers as possible, maintain transportation, and optimize on-time commuter and freight performance; and (7) focus planning on activities that immediately benefit Corridor users. (c) Improvements must be compatible with future transportation improvements and produce the greatest labor benefit from hiring people currently unemployed. (d) A train on the Northeast Corridor main line, or between that line and Atlantic City, must have automatic train control designed to slow or stop it in response to an outside signal. (e) If practicable, Amtrak must establish Corridor passenger service implementing the cited 1976 Act provision. (f) After the improvement program is complete, Amtrak must develop economical, reliable equipment compatible with Corridor track, operations, and marketing, including reliable scheduled revenue trip times under the cited provision. Before buying Government-financed equipment, Amtrak must decide that it complies with this subsection and must request appropriations to produce it. (g) (1) Amtrak may agree with a freight carrier or regional transportation authority for the carrier to use an alternate route off the Corridor between the District of Columbia and New York metropolitan areas, including intermediate points. The agreement must last at least five years. (2) Amtrak must promptly seek Surface Transportation Board approval of the agreement and related agreements. If approval is needed to carry out this chapter, the Board must approve within 90 days. (3) If no agreement is made, Amtrak may, with the other parties’ consent, apply to the Board. If deciding terms is necessary to carry out this chapter, the Board must decide within 90 days, and its decision binds the other parties. (h) (1) The Transportation Secretary must coordinate Corridor transportation programs so they are integrated and consistent with the improvement program, and coordinate Government funds for redevelopment and revitalization near urban Corridor stations served by intercity and commuter rail. (2) If the Secretary finds significant noncompliance, the Secretary may deny financing to the noncomplying program until it is corrected. (i) Amtrak must give highest priority to completing the program. (j) State or local building, zoning, subdivision, related, or other laws do not apply to construction, ownership, use, operation, financing, leasing, conveyance, mortgage, or mortgage enforcement involving an Amtrak improvement that is part of or advances the Northeast Corridor Improvement Project or chapters 241, 243, or 247, or land and related interests where it is located. This includes permit, action, approval, and filing requirements. The exemption continues for the land and improvements for mortgagees before, during, and after possession, foreclosure purchasers or deed-in-lieu purchasers, and their successors and assigns, as long as the property is used or held for railroad or accessory purposes. It does not apply unless Amtrak receives a Federal operating subsidy in the fiscal year when it commits to or begins the improvement.