Published
July 1, 2026
Norfolk Southern has been on the losing end of two very different federal actions in the past few years, and it's easy to mix them up. One grew out of the February 2023 East Palestine derailment and is still tied up in court more than three years later. The other, over how Norfolk Southern dispatches Amtrak's Crescent Route trains, was resolved in 2025. Here is what each case actually involves, and where things stand today.
Two Separate Federal Cases, Same Railroad
It's worth being precise about this up front, because press coverage often blurs the two together: Norfolk Southern is a defendant in multiple, unrelated legal matters, and "a settlement with Norfolk Southern" can mean at least three different things depending on which one is being discussed.- The federal East Palestine consent decree — a proposed environmental settlement between the United States (EPA, DOJ, and the Department of the Interior) and Norfolk Southern over the derailment, still awaiting final court approval as of this writing.
- The private East Palestine class action settlement — a separate $600 million settlement with residents and businesses that received final court approval in September 2024 and has since been through appeals. This is not the subject of this article, but it's easy to confuse with the federal consent decree because both arise from the same derailment.
- The Amtrak Crescent Route lawsuit — an unrelated DOJ enforcement case over whether Norfolk Southern gave Amtrak passenger trains their legally required priority over freight. It has nothing to do with East Palestine and was already settled and dismissed.
The East Palestine Derailment: A Recap
On February 3, 2023, 38 cars of Norfolk Southern Train 32N derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, releasing hazardous substances, including vinyl chloride, and prompting a controlled "vent and burn" of several tank cars three days later. EPA personnel arrived within hours and have remained engaged in the cleanup since. The United States sued Norfolk Southern in March 2023 (amended in May 2023) alleging violations of the Clean Water Act and seeking recovery of cleanup costs under CERCLA, the federal Superfund law.
Status
Lodged, Not Yet Entered as Final
Residents were later allowed to intervene and challenge the decree's adequacy
Case
State of Ohio & United States v. Norfolk Southern
Case No. 4:23-cv-00517-JRA · U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio · Hon. John R. Adams
Announced Value
Over $310 Million
Plus an estimated ~$780 million Norfolk Southern says it already spent on response costs
Anything to Claim?
No — not a consumer class action
This is government cleanup, penalty, and program funding, not a payout with a claim form
What the Proposed Consent Decree Would Require
The Justice Department and EPA announced the agreement on May 23, 2024. Norfolk Southern does not admit liability under the proposed decree; it resolves the government's claims without a finding of wrongdoing. As proposed, the decree would require Norfolk Southern to:- Pay an estimated $235 million for past and future cleanup costs at the derailment site.
- Fund a $25 million, 20-year community health program covering medical monitoring and mental health services for people who lived near the derailment site or worked as first responders there, plus a community facilitation effort to help residents use the program.
- Spend approximately $15 million on long-term groundwater and surface-water monitoring over 10 years.
- Establish a $15 million private drinking-water well monitoring fund for another 10 years.
- Implement a roughly $6 million waterways remediation plan for Leslie Run and Sulphur Run, addressing legacy pollution, stormwater runoff, and habitat restoration.
- Pay a $15 million civil penalty for alleged Clean Water Act violations.
- Pay $175,000 for natural resource damages to the Department of the Interior.
- Install additional hot-bearing detectors and other wayside monitoring equipment on its Key Routes, adopt new procedures for coordinating with first responders before reopening tracks or conducting a vent-and-burn, and meet a series of rail-safety and reporting commitments detailed in the decree.
Where the Consent Decree Actually Stands
This is the part that tends to get skipped in headlines: as of this writing, the consent decree has not been entered as a final judgment. After the May 2024 announcement, the agreement was lodged with the court for a mandatory public comment period. DOJ filed a motion in October 2024 asking the court to enter it, along with responses to the comments received. The court did not act quickly.Instead, East Palestine residents Robert Figley and Barbara Adams sought to intervene in the case to press concerns about environmental testing, contamination levels around the derailment site, and whether the proposed decree's terms are adequate. The court granted their motion to intervene in March 2026, meaning they are now formal parties who can raise objections and participate in further proceedings — nearly three years after the derailment. Norfolk Southern has separately contested procedural issues in the case, including seeking to limit expert testimony. None of this means the decree will be rejected; it means the case remains actively contested rather than closed.
Don't Confuse This With the $600 Million Class Action Settlement
Because two different East Palestine settlements have been in the news, it's worth separating them clearly. The private class action brought by residents and businesses — a different case, before a different judge (Hon. Benita Pearson) — reached a $600 million settlement that received final court approval on September 27, 2024. Some residents later challenged that settlement and asked the court to let them out of the releases they signed; that request was denied, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up a further appeal in March 2026, which effectively closed out that private settlement's appeals.That $600 million is separate money, in a separate case, for a separate purpose (compensating individual residents and businesses for their own claims). The $310 million-plus consent decree discussed above is the federal government's own case, and it funds cleanup, monitoring, penalties, and public programs rather than individual payouts. Neither is a class action you can currently file a claim in.
The Second Case: DOJ v. Norfolk Southern Over Amtrak Delays
The other federal matter has nothing to do with East Palestine. On July 30, 2024, the Justice Department sued Norfolk Southern in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleging the railroad had been chronically violating Amtrak's statutory right to preference over freight traffic on the Crescent Route, which runs 1,377 miles between New York City and New Orleans. Norfolk Southern owns or dispatches more than 1,140 of those miles.
Status
Settled & Dismissed (September 2025)
DOJ moved to dismiss the lawsuit as part of the settlement
Case
United States v. Norfolk Southern Corp. & Norfolk Southern Ry. Co.
Civil No. 1:24-cv-02226 · U.S. District Court, District of Columbia · filed July 30, 2024
Legal Basis
49 U.S.C. § 24308(c)
Requires host railroads to give Amtrak passenger trains preference over freight, absent an emergency
Anything to Claim?
No — an operational settlement, not a payout
Norfolk Southern agreed to dispatching changes, not money to riders
What the Complaint Alleged
The complaint said Norfolk Southern's Crescent trains were chronically late: over one 12-month period, it alleged, only about 22–24% of the southbound Crescent and 41–48% of the northbound Crescent arrived on time, and the government attributed most of that to freight-train interference on Norfolk Southern's single-track lines. It described specific incidents where Norfolk Southern dispatchers allegedly held Amtrak trains in sidings for freight trains, forced Amtrak trains to trail slower freight for dozens of miles because no siding was long enough to hold the freight train instead, or blocked station platforms with idle freight equipment. These were allegations in a civil complaint, not factual findings by a court, and Norfolk Southern had not conceded them before the case settled.How the Amtrak Case Was Resolved
The Justice Department announced a settlement in September 2025. Under its terms, Norfolk Southern agreed to give Amtrak trains the highest dispatching priority, train its dispatchers and other personnel accordingly, require supervisor sign-off before any dispatching call that doesn't prioritize an Amtrak train outside a genuine emergency, hand over records of Amtrak delays to the Justice Department, and have a compliance officer certify annually that the railroad is meeting its statutory obligations. The Justice Department then moved to dismiss its own lawsuit as part of the resolution.According to DOJ's account of the settlement's results, Amtrak Crescent trains' delay minutes attributable to Norfolk Southern fell by roughly 53% between 2024 and 2025 — the kind of concrete, measurable outcome that a straight civil penalty wouldn't necessarily produce on its own.
Why It Matters That These Are Different Cases
The distinction isn't just trivia. It affects what "resolved" actually means for Norfolk Southern in 2026: the Amtrak matter is closed, with a working compliance mechanism and reported results. The East Palestine consent decree is not closed — it remains subject to ongoing litigation over its adequacy, with residents now formally at the table as intervenors. A company can simultaneously be "done" with one federal case and still deep in another, and treating "Norfolk Southern settled with the government" as a single, finished story understates how much of the East Palestine matter is still being fought over in 2026.What to Watch For
For the consent decree, the open questions are whether the intervenors' concerns lead to changes in the decree's terms, when (or whether) Judge Adams enters it as a final judgment, and how the long-running monitoring and community health commitments get implemented once the decree is final. For the Amtrak matter, the settlement's annual compliance certifications and DOJ's ongoing access to delay records are the mechanism that's supposed to keep performance from sliding back once headlines move on. We'll update this page if either case's status changes.Free settlement alerts
Get notified when new class actions open to claims
Join thousands of readers who get the latest class action settlements you may qualify for — delivered straight to your inbox.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are the East Palestine settlement and the Amtrak lawsuit the same case?
No. They are two separate federal matters against Norfolk Southern that happen to overlap in time. The East Palestine case (Case No. 4:23-cv-00517, N.D. Ohio) is an environmental consent decree with the EPA, DOJ, and Department of the Interior over the February 2023 train derailment. The Amtrak case (Case No. 1:24-cv-02226, D.D.C.) was a DOJ lawsuit alleging Norfolk Southern failed to give Amtrak's Crescent Route trains legally required preference over freight. Different courts, different statutes, different remedies.
Is the $310 million East Palestine consent decree final?
Not as of this writing. The Department of Justice, EPA, and Norfolk Southern reached the agreement in May 2024 and lodged it with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio for public comment. DOJ moved to have the court enter it as a final judgment in October 2024, but the court had not done so as of mid-2026. East Palestine residents were later granted the right to intervene to raise concerns about the decree's adequacy, and litigation over its terms was continuing. Check the court docket for the current status.
Is this the same as the $600 million East Palestine class action settlement?
No, and this is a common point of confusion. Separately from the federal government's consent decree, Norfolk Southern also settled a private class action brought by East Palestine residents and businesses for $600 million. That settlement received final court approval in September 2024, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a further appeal of it in March 2026. The $310M+ figure in this article is federal government money (cleanup costs, a civil penalty, and public programs) and is separate from the $600 million paid to resolve individual residents' and businesses' private claims.
What did Norfolk Southern agree to do about Amtrak trains?
Under the September 2025 settlement, Norfolk Southern agreed to give all Amtrak trains the highest dispatching priority, train its dispatchers accordingly, require supervisor approval before any dispatching decision that does not prioritize an Amtrak train outside an emergency, share delay records with the Justice Department, and have a compliance officer certify annually that it is following the agreement. The Justice Department then moved to dismiss its lawsuit.
Is there anything for consumers to claim from either case?
No. Both matters described in this article are government enforcement actions, not consumer class actions, and neither has a claim form for the general public. The consent decree funds go toward cleanup, monitoring, and a community health program limited to people who meet specific residency and exposure criteria near East Palestine; the Amtrak settlement is entirely about operational commitments, not payments.
Sources
• Consent Decree, State of Ohio & United States of America v. Norfolk Southern Railway Co. & Norfolk Southern Corp., Case No. 4:23-cv-00517-JRA, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio (lodged May 23, 2024)• U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, "United States Reaches Over $310 Million Settlement With Norfolk Southern To Address Harms Caused By East Palestine Train Derailment" (May 23, 2024)
• U.S. EPA, East Palestine Train Derailment Settlement Update page
• Complaint, United States of America v. Norfolk Southern Corp. & Norfolk Southern Railway Co., Civil No. 1:24-cv-02226, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (filed July 30, 2024)
• U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, "Norfolk Southern Agrees to Give Amtrak Trains Highest Priority Over Freight Trains and Make its Delay Records for Amtrak Trains Available to the Department of Justice" (September 2025)
• 49 U.S.C. § 24308(c); Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. §§ 1311, 1321; CERCLA, 42 U.S.C. § 9607
• Court records and reporting on the motion to intervene granted to East Palestine residents in Case No. 4:23-cv-00517 (March 2026), and on final approval and subsequent appeal of the separate $600 million private class action settlement (Sept. 2024 approval; certiorari denied March 2026)
About This Page
This article summarizes a lodged federal consent decree, a since-settled federal complaint, and related public reporting involving Norfolk Southern Corporation and Norfolk Southern Railway Company. Norfolk Southern has not admitted liability in either matter described here. OpenClassActions.com is a consumer news and information site and is not a law firm, a government agency, or a party to either case. Statements about the East Palestine derailment and the Amtrak dispatching allegations reflect claims and filings described in the source documents and have not all been finally adjudicated; the status of the still-pending consent decree may have changed since publication. This page is general information, not legal advice. For the current status of the consent decree, consult the court docket for Case No. 4:23-cv-00517 in the Northern District of Ohio.
For more class actions keep scrolling below.
