Surface Transportation Board September 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Board has approved the fourth quarter 2012 rail cost adjustment factor (RCAF) and cost index filed by the Association of American Railroads. The fourth quarter 2012 RCAF (Unadjusted) is 1.209. The fourth quarter 2012 RCAF (Adjusted) is 0.529. The fourth quarter 2012 RCAF-5 is 0.499.

CSX Transportation, Inc. (CSXT) and Grand Trunk Western Railroad Company (GTW) have agreed to exchange perpetual rail operating easements over certain parts of each other's lines. GTW has agreed to grant CSXT an easement over a GTW line between Munster, Ind., and Elsdon, Ill. (Elsdon Line), over which GTW would retain local and overhead trackage rights. CSXT also has agreed to convey local and overhead trackage rights over that line to various GTW affiliates and a CSXT affiliate. In exchange for that easement, CSXT has agreed to grant GTW an easement over a CSXT line between Leewood, Tenn., and Aulon, Tenn., over which CSXT would retain local and overhead trackage rights. In this docket, CSXT has filed an application for authority to acquire an easement from GTW, and in the embraced Docket Nos. FD 35522 (Sub-No. 1) and (Sub-No. 2), the CSXT affiliate and the various GTW affiliates, respectively, seek authority to acquire trackage rights over that line.

The Surface Transportation Board (Board) is accepting for consideration the application filed August 6, 2012, by Genesee and Wyoming Inc. (GWI) and RailAmerica, Inc. (RailAmerica). The application seeks Board approval under 49 U.S.C. 11323-11325 of the acquisition of control of RailAmerica, a noncarrier holding company, by GWI, a noncarrier holding company. This proposal is referred to as the Transaction, and GWI and RailAmerica are referred to collectively as Applicants. The Board finds that the application is complete and that the Transaction is a minor transaction upon the preliminary determination that the Transaction clearly will not have any anticompetitive effects. 49 CFR 1180.2(b)(1), (c). The Board makes this determination based solely on the 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 would have anticompetitive effects that are not apparent from the application itself.