STB advances several long-standing cases

Surface Transportation Board Chairman Patrick Fuchs last week announced recent actions taken to speed up the resolution of several long-standing board proceedings.

“The agency is working diligently to deliver for the public, and we will build on our intensive efforts to promote transparency, accountability and collaboration,” said Fuchs in a press release. “Along with these actions, the board has issued dozens of decisions in recent weeks to resolve disputes, facilitate market entry and exit, and otherwise apply the law.”

The following actions were taken earlier this month:

• On Feb. 10, the board directed Conrail, CSX and Norfolk Southern Railway to take certain actions related to offers of financial assistance. The case began when the parties filed a notice of exemption in February 2009; the last board decision in the docket was in August 2022. After a review in October 2024, the board issued its Feb. 10 ruling. The agency is actively reviewing associated filings, the most recent of which was submitted last week. Fuchs expects the board to continue to act promptly as appropriate to resolve the case.

• In a case involving Amtrak and terms and compensation for its use of CN facilities and service, the board on Feb. 19 issued a decision detailing its planned requests for information and announcing a technical conference to discuss those requests. Fuchs expects the conference will greatly assist the board's efforts to receive the necessary information to bring the case to a conclusion.

• In a case involving Savage Tooele Railroad Co.'s construction and operation of a rail line in Tooele County, Utah, the company filed a petition for exemption in June 2022, and a petition for reconsideration of the board’s final decision was filed in April 2024. Last week, Fuchs offered a draft action for consideration by the full board, which he expects to issue a decision in the first half of March, if not sooner.

• On Feb. 5, the board declined to grant a request to extend a negotiating period for interim trail use in a case involving an R. J. Corman Railroad Property LLC's notice of exemption filed in February 2020 for property in Scott, Campbell and Anderson counties, Tennessee. Instead, the board encouraged the parties to work diligently on negotiations.

• Fuchs intends to offer a draft action for the full board to consider next month in a case involving Canadian Pacific and BNSF Railway Co., in which New Century Ag filed a petition in December 2018 to reopen or, in the alternative, revoke an exemption granted by the board. The board last took action on the case in May 2022. 

• Fuchs intends to offer a draft action for the board to consider next month in a case involving Union Pacific Railroad's petition related to its proposed construction and operation of a 6-mile rail line in Maricopa and Pinal counties in Arizona. The goal is for the board to vote on a decision next month.

The STB announcement is available here.