Railroad industry group drops lawsuit over broadband crossings in Virginia

A group representing big railroads in Virginia has regained its right to sue the commonwealth over a recent law that attempted to streamline broadband internet access. But it apparently does not want to do so, for now at least. Virginia's General Assembly unanimously passed a bill in 2023 to streamline railroad approval processes in response to complaints from internet service providers that railroads were charging them high fees to cross their lines and causing long delays to completion. The Association of American Railroads, which represents Norfolk Southern and CSX, soon responded with a lawsuit against the State Corporation Commission, which would be arbiter in disputes under the law. The suit contended that federal law on the subject renders the recent state law “void and unenforceable,” and that the state law violates the U.S. Constitution’s “takings clause” by failing to provide the railroads with just compensation based on market value. Richmond-based U.S. District Judge David Novak ruled in April 2024 that the industry group did not have standing to file such a claim—the railroads themselves should have to do it. A federal appeals court disagreed in a ruling last month and sent the case back to be heard again. But a recent Virginia Supreme Court ruling about lawsuits on a parallel track appears to have done what the railroad association had hoped to do in federal court, so its lawyers asked Novak earlier this month to close the case without prejudice, meaning it could file again.