(The following story by Mark Kawar appeared on the Omaha World-Herald website on November 5.)
OMAHA — Union Pacific Co. overbilled Amtrak more than $1 million for the use of its tracks, Amtrak charged in a court petition filed Friday.
Amtrak claimed in the petition that it does not know how much money it is owed because Union Pacific hid billing records. The petition asks the U.S. District Court in Nebraska to force Union Pacific to turn over the records.
A Union Pacific spokesman said the company already has turned over “a considerable number” of records to Amtrak.
“We thought we’d given them the information they wanted but apparently not,” said spokesman John Bromley.
He said that if Amtrak wanted more information, a telephone request to Union Pacific would have been a better tool than legal action.
Amtrak said in the petition that it repeatedly had asked Union Pacific for the records, but the company blocked it in numerous ways, including demanding more than $250,000 for photocopying records, sending documents that weren’t requested and cutting off contact with Amtrak.
“Absent the remaining Union Pacific records, Amtrak cannot fully confirm the existence of fraud, waste or abuse on the part of Union Pacific, nor the financial magnitude of possible over-billings,” the petition said.