Surface Transportation Board November 29, 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Surface Transportation Board (Board) is accepting for consideration the primary application filed October 30, 2007, by Canadian National Railway Corporation (CNR) and Grand Trunk Corporation (GTC), a noncarrier holding company through which CNR controls its U.S. rail subsidiaries, and seven related filings. The primary application seeks Board approval under 49 U.S.C. 11321-26 of the acquisition of control of EJ&E West Company (EJ&EW), a wholly owned noncarrier subsidiary of Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway Company (EJ&E), by CNR and GTC. This proposal is referred to as the Control Transaction, and CNR and GTC are referred to collectively as applicants. The related filings are notices of exemption involving an intra- corporate family transaction and the granting of trackage rights. The Sub-No. 1 filing provides for EJ&E to transfer property to EJ&EW, which, at that time, would become a rail common carrier, prior to applicants acquiring control of EJ&EW. The Sub-Nos. 2 through 7 filings provide for grants of trackage rights by EJ&EW to Grand Trunk Western Railroad (GTW), Illinois Central Railroad Company (IC), Chicago, Central & Pacific Railroad Company (CCP), and Wisconsin Central Ltd. (WCL), and by IC and CCP to EJ&EW, promptly upon applicants' acquisition of control of EJ&EW, should the Board approve the proposed Control Transaction. The Board finds that the Control Transaction is a ``minor transaction'' under 49 CFR 1180.2(c), and adopts a procedural schedule for consideration of the application. In finding that the transaction is a minor transaction, the Board has preliminarily determined that any anticompetitive effects of the transaction will clearly be outweighed by the transaction's anticipated contribution to the public interest in meeting significant transportation needs. 49 CFR 1180.2(b)(2). The Board makes this determination based solely on evidence presented in the application. The Board stresses that this is not a final determination, and its finding may be rebutted by filings and evidence submitted into the record for this proceeding. The Board will give careful consideration to any claims that the transaction will have anticompetitive effects that are not apparent from the application itself. Moreover, the Board has determined to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) with respect to the transaction.