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Surface Transportation Board May 15 announced that Railway Progress Institute's Committee on Tank Cars (RPI-CTC) and Union Pacific Railroad recently reached a settlement — ending the third of five STB cases pertaining to tank-car charge disputes between four companies, and Burlington Northern Santa Fe and UP.
RPI-CTC, North America Freight Car Association (NAFCA), The Chlorine Institute Inc. (CI) and E.I DuPont de Nemours and Co. last year asked STB to declare that certain BNSF and UP charges for storing cars or diverting them from their original destinations are improper departures from previously agreed upon allowances, alleging that the charges are covered by an existing tank-car allowance formula.
The board in October directed the parties to privately settle their five formal disputes. At the request of all parties, STB is holding its October decision in abeyance until May 20 to provide the parties more time to negotiate.
To date, settlements have been reached between RPI-CTC and BNSF, CI and UP, and, most recently, RPI-CTC and UP.
CI and BNSF also reached an agreement, leading CI to withdraw from its STB proceeding. Only cases involving NAFCA and BNSF, and DuPont and UP still are pending before STB.