NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Amtrak is at odds with city officials in New Orleans over fencing that the railroad company says is intended to protect tracks along the city's busy Earhart Boulevard.
The city sued Amtrak over the fence. Now, The New Orleans Advocate’s Jim Mustian reports, Amtrak has filed a counter-suit in federal court.
Mayor Mitch Landrieu's administration has said the fence sends the wrong message and would discourage development along the Earhart corridor.
Amtrak contends the fence is needed to keep people away from the tracks and that recent actions by the City Council designed to forestall the project are "unenforceable."
Amtrak asked U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier to dissolve a state court restraining order that halted construction on the fence. A hearing on that motion is set for Nov. 19.
"Fencing is not uncommon where we have property," said Marc Magliari, an Amtrak spokesman, adding that the New Orleans project wasn't triggered by any particular incident. "We have been, around the country, surveying our locations to see where additional security measures are needed, and that certainly was brought to our attention by our employees down there."
City officials have said the fence, designed to stand 7 feet high with an additional foot of barbed wire above it, would interrupt the nascent growth along the Earhart Boulevard corridor, an area they say was long neglected but now is home to "burgeoning businesses" such as Restaurant Depot, the corporate headquarters of the charitable organization Bridge House, the New Orleans-based Sucré bakery and others.
