STB starts on-time performance NPRM; approves NS acquisition

The Surface Transportation Board announced on May 15, 2015 that it will begin a proceeding to define intercity passenger railroad on-time performance for purposes of Section 213 of the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008 (PRIIA), 49 U.S.C. § 24308(f). It also approved Norfolk Southern’s acquisition of approximately 283 miles of rail line from the Delaware & Hudson Railway Company, Inc. (D&H).

“The Board intends to issue in a subsequent decision a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) in this matter, inviting public participation and comment,” said spokesman Dennis Watson. “This decision follows a series of events surrounding the constitutionality of Section 207 of PRIIA in the federal courts, as well as a petition filed by the Association of American Railroads requesting a rulemaking on this matter.”

“The Board fully recognizes that when Congress enacted PRIIA, it placed importance on the efficient and timely adjudication of on-time performance,” said Watson. “Therefore, the Board will develop a definition of on-time performance with public participation through a formal rulemaking so that a process will be in place as Congress intended.”

The Board issued its notice today in On-Time Performance Under Section 213 of the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008, EP 726. That decision may be viewed and downloaded at the STB website, www.stb.dot.gov, by clicking on this link.

The STB also approved Norfolk Southern’s acquisition of approximately 283 miles of rail line in Pennsylvania and New York from the Delaware & Hudson Railway Company, Inc. (D&H), subject to certain conditions. The lines, known as D&H’s South Lines, consist of approximately 267 miles of the main line between Sunbury/Kase, Pa., and Schenectady, N.Y., and approximately 15 miles of the running track between Voorheesville Junction and Delanson, N.Y.

“In reaching its decision, the Board found that NS’s acquisition of the South Lines from D&H is not likely to cause a substantial lessening of competition or create a monopoly or restraint of trade,” said Watson. “The Board found this to be true, even when taking into account D&H’s planned discontinuance of trackage rights that connect to the D&H South Lines, which are the subject of a separate proceeding. The Board concluded that any anticompetitive effects are unlikely and, even if they were to occur, would be far outweighed by the very strong public benefits of the transaction. Such benefits include allowing NS to provide more reliable, safe, and efficient service for shippers and allowing NSR and rail transportation generally to provide more effective competition with other modes of transportation, such as trucking and barge. The Board issued the approval subject to a number of conditions, including a condition that NS enter into two voluntary commercial agreements with D&H to preserve certain shippers’ access to two carriers, NS and D&H.

The Board issued its decision today in Norfolk Southern Railway Company—Acquisition and Operation—Certain Rail Lines of the Delaware and Hudson Railway Company, Inc., FD 35873. That decision may be viewed and downloaded at the STB website, www.stb.dot.gov, by clicking on this link.