Surface Transportation Board 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Board, under 49 U.S.C. 10502, revokes the class exemption as it pertains to the modified trackage rights described in STB Finance Docket No. 34554 (Sub-No. 4) \1\ to permit the trackage rights to expire on or about December 31, 2006, in accordance with the agreement of the parties,\2\ subject to the employee protective conditions set forth in Oregon Short Line R. Co.AbandonmentGoshen, 360 I.C.C. 91 (1979).

The Board adopts its 2006 User Fee Update and revises its fee schedule to recover the costs associated with the January 2006 Government salary increases and to reflect changes in overhead costs to the Board.

The Surface Transportation Board (Board) will hold a public hearing beginning at 9 a.m. on Thursday, May 11, 2006, at its offices in Washington, DC, to provide interested persons an opportunity to express their views on the subject of fuel surcharges collected by railroads. Persons wishing to speak at the hearing should notify the Board in writing.

The Surface Transportation Board, having assessed its procedures for transactions qualifying for the 7- and 21-day class exemptions proposes to modify the timeframes in its rules to provide greater public notice in advance of an exempt transaction. The proposed changes are intended to ensure that the public is given notice of a proposed transaction before the exemption becomes effective; and that the Board may process such notices of exemption, and related petitions for stay, if any, in an orderly and timely fashion.

The Surface Transportation Board has instituted a proceeding to seek public comments on proposed changes to its stand-alone cost methodology, on whether to continue to permit movement-specific adjustments to its Uniform Railroad Costing System in rail rate reasonableness cases, and on the proper standards for reopening and vacating a prior rate decision that is based upon a stand-alone cost analysis. These changes are intended to resolve major issues common to all rail rate complaints seeking relief under the agency's stand-alone cost test.

RailCrew Xpress, LLC (RCXLLC), a noncarrier, and its wholly owned subsidiary, RailCrew Xpress, Corp. (RCXCORP), also a noncarrier (together with the other parties to these transactions, applicants), have filed an application under 49 U.S.C. 14303 for RXCCORP to acquire all of the stock of two federally regulated motor passenger carriers, Raudin McCormick, Inc. (RMI) (MC-184860), and JLS, Inc., d/b/a AAA Limo (JLS) (MC-225657), and for RCXLLC to acquire control of Brown's Crew Car of Wyoming, Inc., d/b/a Armadillo Express (Brown's), a federally regulated motor passenger carrier (MC-168832), by acquiring all of its stock. Persons wishing to oppose this application must follow the rules at 49 CFR 1182.5 and 1182.8. The Board has tentatively approved the transactions, and, if no opposing comments are timely filed, this notice will be the final Board action.

On November 13, 2003, HolRail LLC (HolRail) filed a petition with the Surface Transportation Board (the Board or STB) pursuant to 49 U.S.C. 10502 for authority to construct and operate a rail line in Orangeburg and Dorchester counties, South Carolina (SC). The proposed project would involve the construction and operation of approximately two miles of new rail line from the existing cement production factory owned by HolRail's parent company, Holcim (US) Inc. (Holcim), located near Holly Hill in Orangeburg County, to the terminus of an existing rail line of the Norfolk Southern Railway Company (NSR), located to the south near Giant in Dorchester County. Based on consultations conducted to date, the Board's Section of Environmental Analysis (SEA) determined that the preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is appropriate. To help determine the scope of the EIS, and as required by the Board's regulations at 49 CFR 1105.10(a)(2), SEA published in the Federal Register on July 29, 2005, the Notice of Intent to Prepare an EIS; Notice of Initiation of the Scoping Process; Notice of Availability of Draft Scope of Study for the EIS and Request for Comments. The scoping comment period originally concluded on August 31, 2005, but due to an inadvertent omission in the scoping notice mailed to Federal, state and local agencies, SEA accepted comments from any interested agency through October 28, 2005. After review and consideration of all comments received, this notice sets forth the Final Scope of Study for the EIS. The Final Scope of Study reflects changes to the Draft Scope of Study as a result of the comments, and summarizes and addresses the principal environmental concerns raised by the comments.

The Surface Transportation Board proposes to adopt 1.019 (1.9%) as the measure of average change in railroad productivity for the 2000-2004 (5-year) averaging period. This value is a decline of 1 percentage point from the current measure of 2.9% that was developed for the 1999-2003 period.