Democratic lawmakers and consumer interest groups are pressuring the rail operator Amtrak to rescind the newest version of its ticketing agreement.
Amtrak overhauled part of its ticketing agreement in January to force disagreements between the corporation and its customers into arbitration, barring consumers from taking Amtrak to court either individually or as part of a class-action lawsuit. After the change was first reported in November, lawmakers and consumer interest groups began pushing the government-owned business to reconsider.
Fourteen Democratic senators, including three presidential contenders, signed on to a joint letter sent to Amtrak on Nov. 26, demanding the corporation scrap its forced arbitration clause.
“Claims subject to forced arbitration are relegated to private forums where powerful defendants, like Amtrak, can stack the deck against claimants and cover up wrongdoing,” the senators wrote. “We demand that Amtrak immediately eliminate this anti-consumer arbitration and class action policy.”
The new arbitration rule comes after several years of high-profile accidents involving Amtrak trains. A February 2018 collision between an Amtrak passenger train and a CSX freight train injured 116 people. In December 2017, an Amtrak train in Washington state derailed while crossing a bridge, killing three passengers and injuring dozens more. An Amtrak train in Philadelphia in May 2015 careened off track after taking a curve at 106 mph, more than twice the recommended speed.
Amtrak has defended its new arbitration policy and denied any implication that the change was made with an eye toward significant benefit to the company. Amtrak asserts that claims lodged against the company would proceed as usual, more or less.
“Amtrak did not develop its arbitration program for passenger claims to disadvantage passengers or to escape liability or accountability for accidents. In fact, we expect that most claims will continue to be resolved directly with Amtrak,” the company told the Washington Examiner in a statement.
“The parties jointly select a qualified and independent arbitrator from a national roster of professional arbitrators through the American Arbitration Association,” the company said. “Claimants can choose a location from convenient venues throughout the country, are entitled to legal representation, and the arbitrator can award damages and all other relief available under applicable law.”
Opponents of the change say that forcing all disagreements into arbitration will discourage some people with valid claims from coming forward. The block against class-action lawsuits, for instance, prohibits a group of customers from banding together to settle individually small claims, such as if Amtrak tacked on a small fee per ticket that it’s not licensed to exact.
“It’s appalling,” Ira Rheingold, executive director of the National Association of Consumer Advocates, told the Washington Examiner.
Rheingold said that arbitration, while useful in some cases, has severe setbacks when enforced in a blanket code such as Amtrak’s. Cases settled through arbitration have no discovery process, so litigants and attorneys are significantly limited in the amount of wrongdoing or negligence on behalf of the company they can identify.
Arbitration cases and settlements also remain private, so customers who have had a similar issue with the company and are interested in the outcome of the case will not be privy to what settlement, if any, is reached. Arbitration also lacks a standard appeals process such as exists in courtrooms.
Amtrak, for its part, says that complaints decided through arbitration are resolved more quickly than through litigation.
“The major difference is that arbitration provides a resolution for our customers in less time — generally well within a year of filing — by avoiding unnecessary discovery and other time-consuming proceedings, and the often yearslong wait for a trial date on overcrowded court dockets,” Amtrak said.
While Amtrak’s statement may be true in certain circumstances, that does not justify the total ban on litigation, Rheingold said. “Customers should have the option of settling through arbitration if they want to, not because Amtrak’s policy blocks a settlement through any other means.”
