Based on a newspaper article and TV articles, my friends and I have become aware that NS is involved in a project in Montgomery County, Virginia, that may involve some taking of private land.
The legal concept of “eminent domain” seems to be in flux right now, but most people seem to feel it is expanding, given a decision of the U.S.Supreme Court last year.
We know there has been controversy about acquiring land in Montgomery County for a new railyard, with arguments both legal and social against what NS is trying to do.
Does the Company have anything in the way of an explanation or clarification to help me understand what’s happening? I would like to have the railroad’s side too, if possible.
I am a shareholder, by the way.
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Did not Norfolk Southern close or sell off a couple of yards in the north just a couple of years ago after the Merger hoopla with Conrail? Anyone know or remember?
Looks like the “downsizing concpet” of the 1990s is continuing to bite some railroads in the rumpus.
Mr. Smalling: Thank you for your inquiry. Because of their importance to interstate commerce, and because of the physical constraints on how and where railroads can expand their operations, Virginia statute designates railroads as a public utility and accordingly grants them the power of eminent domain. Because the question was raised, we have acknowledged that we have that power in the case of the proposed intermodal terminal in Montgomery County, but we have not threatened to exercise it. What we have done to
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