TGSC Files to Become Class III Rail Carrier

TGSC will create a common carrier at the Cedar Point Industrial Park. (Image Courtesy of TGSC, via STB)

Non-carrier TGS Cedar Point Railroad LLC (TGSC) has filed with the Surface Transportation Board (STB) a present notice of exemption pursuant to 49 C.F.R. Part 1150 Subpart D to offer common carrier service on 1.28 miles of track owned by TGSC affiliate TGS Cedar Port Partners (TGSLP) in the Cedar Port Industrial Park in Baytown, Tex.

According to the STB filing, TGSLP and TGSC have reached an agreement pursuant to which TGSC will acquire the right to conduct railroad common carrier service on the track, which was originally part of the United States Steel complex. The track begins at a point of connection at milepost 5.22 with the Cedar Bayou Industrial Lead–a line owned by Union Pacific (UP) and operated by UP and BNSF Railway (BNSF)–and extends to milepost 6.4, connecting to ancillary trackage within the TGS Cedar Point Industrial Park. Based on a projected annual revenue of more than $5 million, TGSC expects to be a class III carrier.

TGSC Manager William F. Scott II certified in the STB filing that TGSC “will not result in the creation of a Class II or Class I rail carrier” and “will not be contractually limited in its ability to interchange of traffic with any third-party connecting carrier.”

TGSC and TGSLP, both controlled by Trans-Global Solutions, Inc. (TGSI), have determined that the park and its various customers would “benefit from the provision of railroad common carrier service via TGSC to and from its connecting interline carriers, BNSF and UP,” according to the STB filing. Additionally, TGSI will agree with TGSLP to “terminate TGSI’s private switching services at the park to facilitate an arrangement under which TGSLP will extend to TGSC the right to conduct railroad common carrier operations at that location.”

TGSC says it will begin common carrier operations over the track on or after August 6, 2022.