Surface Transportation Board – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Surface Transportation Board (Board or STB) is adopting a final rule amending its regulations related to the National Trails System Act to: (1) Provide that the initial term for Certificates or Notices of Interim Trail Use or Abandonment will be one year (instead of the current 180 days); (2) permit up to three one-year extensions of the initial period if the trail sponsor and the railroad agree; and (3) permit additional one-year extensions if the trail sponsor and the railroad agree and extraordinary circumstances are shown.

As required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), the Surface Transportation Board (STB or Board) gives notice of its intent to seek approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for an extension of the collection of Class I Railroad Annual Reports, described below. The Board previously published a notice about this collection in the Federal Register on September 12, 2019. That notice allowed for a 60-day public review and comment period. No comments were received.

The Surface Transportation Board (Board) is accepting for consideration the application filed on October 11, 2019, by Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad Company (B&LE or Applicant).\1\ The application seeks Board approval for B&LE, an indirect wholly owned rail carrier subsidiary of Canadian National Railway Company (CNR), to acquire from CSX Transportation, Inc. (CSXT), and to operate approximately 236.3 miles of rail line in New York. This proposal is referred to as the Transaction.

On October 9, 2019, Transportation Demand Management Holdings, LLC (Holdings), a noncarrier, filed an application for Holdings to acquire control of Badger Bus Transportation Group, Inc. (Badger Group), a noncarrier that controls, among other entities, an interstate and intrastate motor carrier, Badger Coaches, Inc. (Badger Coaches), from Badger Group's shareholders, David H. Meier, John R. Meier, and James A. Meier, and the various family trusts they control (collectively, Sellers). The Board is tentatively approving and authorizing the transaction, and, if no opposing comments are timely filed, this notice will be the final Board action. Persons wishing to oppose the application must follow the rules at 49 CFR 1182.5 and 1182.8.

Notice is hereby given of a meeting of the Rail Energy Transportation Advisory Committee (RETAC), pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act.

Effective immediately, the membership of the PRB and ERB is as follows:

The Board proposes to incorporate an additional model to complement its use of the Morningstar/Ibbotson Multi-Stage Discounted Cash Flow Model (MSDCF) and the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) in determining the cost-of-equity component of the cost of capital.

The Surface Transportation Board (STB or Board) proposes to clarify its regulations governing exemptions for certain miscellaneous commodities and boxcar transportation so that those regulations unambiguously state that demurrage continues to be subject to Board regulation. The Board also proposes to revoke, in part, the exemption that currently covers certain agricultural commodities so that the exemption would not apply to the regulation of demurrage, thereby making the agricultural commodities exemption consistent with similar exemptions covering non-intermodal transportation.

The Surface Transportation Board (STB or Board) grants in part a petition filed by the American Chemistry Council (ACC) to amend the Board's railroad performance data reporting regulations. Specifically, the Board proposes to modify its regulations to include chemical and plastics traffic as a distinct reporting category for the ``cars-held'' metric.

The Board hereby gives notice of upcoming vacancies on RSTAC for two large shipper representatives. The Board seeks suggestions for candidates to fill these vacancies.

The Board approves the fourth quarter 2019 Rail Cost Adjustment Factor (RCAF) and cost index filed by the Association of American Railroads. The fourth quarter 2019 RCAF (Unadjusted) is 1.075. The fourth quarter 2019 RCAF (Adjusted) is 0.454. The fourth quarter 2019 RCAF-5 is 0.427.

The Board is granting an exemption under 49 U.S.C. 10502 from the prior approval requirements of 49 U.S.C. 10902 for Arkansas- Oklahoma Railroad Company (AOK), a Class III carrier, to acquire from the State of Oklahoma and operate approximately 69.60 miles of rail line extending from milepost 295.36 in Howe, Okla., to milepost 364.96 in McAlester, Okla. (the Line).\1\ Because AOK is a Class III rail carrier, the acquisition and operation exemption is not subject to labor protective conditions.