ASLRRA PERSPECTIVE, RAILWAY AGE, OCTOBER 2021 ISSUE: In 2017, the previous Administration dubbed the week of June 5 as “Infrastructure Week” as part of an effort to promote its $1 trillion infrastructure plan. Seven times in the following three and a half years, that Administration declared that infrastructure would be the theme of the week, only to see those plans thwarted in one fashion or another each time.
The American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association has recognized four members as 2021 Business Development Award honorees: Iron Horse Resources (IHR), Lake State Railway Co. (LSRC, Railway Age’s 2018 Short Line of the Year), Pan Am Railways, and R.J. Corman (Railway Age’s 2007 Short Line of the Year, West Virginia Line).
As a series of Surface Transportation Board comment periods continues for the CSX’s proposed acquisition of Pan Am Railways, letters both for and against the combination have been filed with the STB.
In Aug. 26 comments filed with the Surface Transportation Board, the United States Department of Justice took issue with many aspects of the proposed CSX-Pan Am Railways merger, citing President Biden’s July 9 Executive Order, “Promoting Competition in the American Economy.”
CSX has recently proposed to acquire Pan Am Railways. Although, as I explain below, I am usually critical of mergers, I believe this merger will substantially enhance the rail network in New England by bringing the region more directly into the national railroad network.
The Surface Transportation Board (STB) has accepted for consideration CSX’s amended and re-filed Pan Am Railways acquisition application, and set a procedural schedule, with a final decision to be rendered April 1, 2022. The proposed merger is also gaining support, CSX reported.
On May 26, The Surface Transportation Board rejected as “incomplete” the merger application filed by CSX Transportation, Inc. to acquire control of Pan Am Systems, Inc. and its short line railroad subsidiaries. CSX on July 1 submitted an “amended and supplemented application” to the STB, stating that the refreshed application “provides all of the additional details of the proposed transaction requested by the STB.”
The U.S. Surface Transportation Board has ruled the CSX-Pan Am merger transaction a “significant” one subject to more formal review, along with a 10-month time clock on a final decision.
The Vermont Rail System (VRS) has opposed CSX’s acquisition of the Pan Am System in a filing with the Surface Transportation Board.
CSX is submitting an application to the Surface Transportation Board (STB) to acquire the Pan Am System, including Pan Am Railways (PAR) and its 50% stake in Pan Am Southern (PAS), the Class I railroad reported Feb. 26.
