NEW BEDFORD — When it came to a fight with foreign investors muscling in on their board of directors, the execs at rail giant CSX needed U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., to remind them that all politics is local.

While few in Congress apart from the Massachusetts delegation were paying any attention, CSX has had its hand on the brakes of the commuter rail project to SouthCoast. It has been holding up the project by making what state officials say are unreasonable demands for the sale of their railroad beds. The sticking point is CSX's insistence that it be exempt from any liability, even if it were at fault in a future accident.

For its hard line, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., threatened CSX with legislation in a letter signed by the entire delegation. But CSX hasn't budged.

Now CSX needs help. It is in a heated battle with two British investment funds: 3G Partners and The Children's Investment Fund, which finances children's causes through tactics some say are pure hardball. The two are trying to unseat five of the 12 CSX board members, and CSX has spent $1 million so far this year lobbying Congress to do something to stop it.

Enter Rep. Frank. Here's what he has to say about the railroad firm's tale of woe: "CSX has been so incorrigible with us over the commuter rail, I'm disinclined to do anything for them. Why do I want to protect their right to screw my state?"

As (bad) luck would have it for CSX, Rep. Frank is chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, and CSX needs his help to make the case that somehow British investors are a national security threat via a power play with one of America's rail companies.

CSX insists that it had nothing to do with it, but several members of Congress have asked for a national security review by the panel that scrutinizes foreign investment in the U.S., the same entity that nixed the Dubai ports deal, in which an oil-rich sheikdom sought to manage American ports.

According to The Hill, a Capitol Hill newspaper, six members of the Senate Banking Committee last week sent Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson a letter asking for an investigation of the CSX dispute, suggesting that it raises security issues as well as questions about investor transparency.

The Hill quoted a CSX spokesman as saying the company had no part in asking for a review of the mess by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, but it would cooperate if asked.

As far as responding to Rep. Frank's tactics, CSX spokesman Robert Sullivan said, "CSX remains willing to help the commonwealth achieve its goal of increased commuter rail service while insuring the availability of safe and efficient rail service that meets the economic needs of the region."

When it was pointed out that he had sidestepped Rep. Frank's tactics and the nub of the dispute about the railroad beds, Mr. Sullivan simply said, "That's our statement."