Let me see how many of these things I can hit at once:

JS Meyers explains how "slow orders" work very well. Basically they are a modification of the timetable speed limit which is imposed until track conditions are improved.....which NS is making clear they are not going to do, except maintain the track to allow their small amount of freight traffic [[usually one train each way per day, in some places two trains where a road freight and a local both run) to run at 25mph. I believe the present slow orders for Amtrak look like this: 30mph CP Ypsi to CP Lake [[east of Chelsea), 40mph CP-Lake to somewhere in the East Jackson neighborhood, then 60mph West-Jackson to Albion. So YES, Norfolk Southern can lower the speed limit for both freight and passenger trains due to track conditions.

This will majorly f*** with the trains' ability to operate anything close to schedule, even once they are out of the slow order zone. Once the train is behind and operating out-of-slot, so to speak, interference from other freight traffic really adds up. Battle Creek is always a bad spot because the Amtrak and NS trains share track for a few miles with the Canadian National, on their busy Toronto-Port Huron-Chicago mainline. A late arriving westbound Amtrak at Porter Jct. in Indiana will delay it even further on NS busy Chicago East mainline. Eastbound trains arriving at West Detroit Jct. out-of-slot will likely be delayed getting onto the CN and going up toward Pontiac. One delay quickly spirals into longer and longer delays.

The ironic thing is, while NS is slowing Amtrak trains down to a crawl between Battle Creek and Ypsilanti, Amtrak is extending the high-speed ITCS signalling system on their part of the Michigan Line westward to New Buffalo, MI, and in the future down through Michigan City to Porter, encompassing the entire 97-mile segment from Kalamazoo to Porter. Presently, the high-speed stretch operates between Kalamazoo and the somewhere just west of Niles, MI, and trains operate across this segment at a maximum of 95mph. ZOOM!

The law states that Amtrak trains are to be given priority over freight traffic. The law does not state that the freight railroad that owns tracks Amtrak operates over must maintain them to Amtrak standards. This current situation is interesting, and is completely politically charged. NS does not want the Michigan Line, and they have not wanted it since they acquired it from Conrail. Despite the fact that it was once the primary artery for New York Central traffic going west from Detroit, it is essentially a branch line now. In 2009, NS leased away the Kalamazoo branch, which runs from Elkhart, IN to Grand Rapids. Prior to that time, NS ran a road freight from Elkhart to Wayne and another Wayne to Elkhart via Kalamazoo. Most days this train would run around or exceed 100 cars. But that is for all of the mixed freight traffic from Wayne to White Pigeon, MI, Niles to Kalamazoo, Jackson to Lansing, and Kalamazoo to Wayland. A shortline could handle the freight operations and make money, but for NS the investment is not worth the small return, so maintenance is minimal. Now that another railroad operates the Elkhart-Grand Rapids segment, the freight from Augusta eastward operates to Elkhart via Detroit and Toledo, a very round-about way. NS has already leased out the Jackson to Lansing branch. NS knows if they do not maintain the Michigan Line to Amtrak standards it will force the state's hand to make the purchase quickly [[and likely on NS' terms), so they can be relieved of the direct cost of upkeep, even if the state deems NS the operator of freight traffic on the line. THE WHOLE THING IS POLITICAL. The segment from Kalamazoo to Dearborn was until recently maintained with a 79mph maximum track speed in some places, and 70mph many others.

Hermod says it well - as long as Amtrak maintains its schedule or something close to it, it is given priority over freight movements. In some cases, even if off-schedule, good dispatchers will figure out how to expedite an Amtrak movement. I've ridden the Southwest Chief before, which runs from Chicago to LA. Much of its route is the BNSF Transcon, arguably the busiest mainline in the country. Many stretches of this track are maintained to such a high standard that priority trailer-train and container freights can do 70mph and the Southwest Chief can do 90 - the fastest long distance train in the Amtrak system. I've seen some beautiful dispatching of the Chief over the BNSF - with the Amtrak snaking in between opposing freight trains and then crossing over and overtaking freights going the same direction. Truly Amazing.

And yes, as luckcar said, the Michigan Line used to be entirely double-track from Detroit to Chicago. After Conrail moved nearly all-through freight traffic from Detroit to Elkhart via Toledo instead of Jackson, they single-tracked much of the line in the late 1980s. I believe Amtrak has talked about connecting some of the passing sidings on their portion west of Kalamazoo in the past - in effect creating some stretches of longer double-track, but none of this has been done to date.

In short - the lack of NS maintenance to a high track standard is a political move to get the State of Michigan and Amtrak to work out a sale NOW. They need to be careful to not just give into NS' wishes and make sure they get a fair deal. Hopefully this will all go through soon and repairs can quickly begin to get the trackage back up to a decent level of speed.