STB to weigh key trackage rights case

The Surface Transportation Board has decided, somewhat reluctantly, to thrash out a trackage rights dispute raised by a BNSF request to acquire "terminal trackage rights over a single track jointly owned by Kansas City Southern Railway Company and Union Pacific Railroad Company."

The Rosebluff Industrial Lead, located in Calcasieu Parish, La., runs roughly nine miles and has become an important conduit for CITGO Petroleum Corp. STB said KCS and UP filed separate replies on March 19, 2013, in opposition to BNSF’s application for terminal trackage rights, while on April 24, 2013, CITGO “filed a petition to intervene in support of BNSF’s petition.”

STB Docket No. FD 32760 (Sub-No. 46), published Monday, Dec. 1, 2014, says STB is issuing “a procedural schedule to govern the proceeding,” following the failure of the Class I parties involved to resolve the issue among themselves. Any decision could prove critical to all parties, as the importance of the U.S. Gulf Coast and its oil refinery facilities gains increasing prominence. 

“On Feb. 27, 2013, BNSF Railway Company (BNSF) filed an application under 49 U.S.C. § 11102(a) for terminal trackage rights over the Rosebluff Industrial Lead (the RIL), track that is jointly owned by Kansas City Southern Railway Company (KCS) and Union Pacific Railroad Company (UP). The RIL connects to the former Southern Pacific Transportation Company Lafayette Subdivision that is now jointly and equally owned by BNSF and UP. The RIL connects at milepost 223.3 and extends approximately nine miles to the south,” STB noted.

Following a failure to resolve the dispute, STB said, “any further delay of a terminal trackage rights proceeding would be unproductive. We will proceed with issuance of an evidentiary schedule.” Three hearings are scheduled:

• Dec. 31, 2014, BNSF Opening Statement and Evidence Due.

• March 2, 2015, Replies and Reply Evidence Due.

• March 31, 2015, BNSF Rebuttal Argument and Evidence Due.

STB noted, “KCS and UP suggest that . . . BNSF must ask UP to invoke the arbitration mechanism contained in the joint facilities agreements before filing a terminal trackage rights application. We disagree. The Board’s proposed step of arbitration is permissive, rather than mandatory.”