STB maps out timeline for pending decisions

The Surface Transportation Board late last week provided updates on several outstanding board proceedings. 

In all of the cases, STB Chairman Patrick Fuchs indicated he intends to offer draft actions for the full board's consideration in the coming months. Following are summaries of some of those updates:

• Oversight of Canadian Pacific's control of Kansas City Southern. In March 2023, the board approved CP's acquisition and control of KCS resulting in Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC). The board’s approval is subject to a seven-year oversight period monitoring CPKC’s compliance with, and the effectiveness of, conditions imposed by the board. In September 2025, Norfolk Southern Railway and Union Pacific Railroad filed separate letters that raised concerns related to service commitments made by CPKC in the merger proceeding regarding the Meridian Speedway, a rail line between Meridian, Mississippi, and Shreveport, Louisiana. The board is expected to address the matter this month.

• NS' acquisition and control of Norfolk & Portsmouth Belt Line Railroad Co. In February 2025, NS sought board approval to acquire control of the Norfolk & Portsmouth Belt Line Railroad Co., a short line carrier operating in Norfolk, Portsmouth and Chesapeake, Virginia, that NS has effectively controlled for 42 years. In March 2025, the STB found the transaction to be “significant” under the board’s regulations. NS filed a supplement in June 2025, and in July 2025 the board found that the application was complete and adopted a procedural schedule. The board is expected to consider action in April.

• In May 2023, the board granted a petition by Union Pacific Railroad, as successor to Southern Pacific, to reopen a proceeding to revise conditions governing trackage rights of BNSF Railway, as successor to the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway, over a 67.8-mile UP-owned rail line between Kern Junction and Mojave, California, known as the Tehachapis Line. In February 2025, following a discovery dispute, the board restarted the procedural schedule. The board is slated to act on the case this month.

• The board in July 2016 granted BNSF terminal trackage rights over the Rosebluff Lead, a 9-mile single track jointly owned by KCS and UP in the Lake Charles area of Louisiana. In 2020, in response to a request from BNSF, the board established conditions for BNSF to directly serve a LyondellBasell facility and set a procedure for setting compensation. The STB received extensive briefing and analysis, held a technical conference, and required submission of supplemental analysis and data. The board is slated to consider action on the case in May.

• Conrail petitioned the board for authority to abandon a 1.36-mile portion of rail line, known as the Harsimus Branch, in Jersey City, New Jersey. In May 2025, the STB's acting director of the Office of Proceedings rejected the Jersey City’s offer of financial assistance to purchase some of Conrail’s interests in the branch, which was appealed to the full board. The board is slated to make a decision this month.

• The Great Walton Railroad Co. asked the board to clarify that a portion of the railroad's runaround track in Hart County, Georgia, is a rail line subject to the agency’s exclusive jurisdiction. The board is slated to act on the case this month.