Railroad Settles Suit over Fiber Access

PITTSBURGH, June 8 -- A subsidiary of Norfolk Southern Corp. has reached a multimillion-dollar settlement with landowners along its railroad system that will allow the company to install fiber optic cable in 15 states. Thoroughbred Technology and Telecommunications Inc. (T-Cubed), settled the class-action lawsuit that could include about 60,000 property owners along 2500 miles of active railroad track.
Norfolk Southern formed T-Cubed in 1999 to be a wholesaler of fiber optic and microwave capacity to telephone, Internet and cable television service along its railway system. The suit argued that property owners should be compensated when the company lays fiber optic lines. Before the settlement, the railroad argued that it could use property rights of way it uses for railroad traffic to "ship" digital information on the cables, without having to pay more money to landowners.