Surface Transportation Board 2010 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Through this Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR), the Board is instituting a proceeding regarding demurrage, i.e., charges for holding rail cars. The agency's intent is to adopt a rule or policy statement addressing when parties should be responsible for demurrage in light of current commercial practices followed by rail carriers, shippers, and receivers.

National Express Corporation (NEC), a noncarrier, seeks an exemption, under 49 U.S.C. 13541, from the prior approval requirements of 49 U.S.C. 14303(a)(5) and 49 CFR 1182 to acquire control of Vogel Bus Company, Inc. (Vogel), a motor passenger carrier. Expedited action has been requested.

The Board hereby gives notice of 2 vacancies on RSTAC for: (1) A representative of a Class I railroad; and (2) a representative of a small shipper. The Board is soliciting suggestions for candidates to fill these vacancies.

This document contains a correction to the Notice of Exemption served and published in the Federal Register on Friday, October 15, 2010 (75 FR 63,532-33). In the notice, noncarrier Lancaster & Chester Railroad, LLC (L&C Railroad) seeks to acquire and operate under 49 CFR 1150.31 approximately 62 miles of rail line owned by Class III rail carrier Lancaster & Chester Railway Company. The correction relates to the name of the connecting railroad in the description of the rail line. The notice incorrectly indicated that L&C Railroad would connect with Consolidated Rail Corporation at former Survey Station 0+06 (milepost SG-346+2210) in Chester County, S.C. Instead, L&C Railroad will connect with CSX Transportation, Inc. at the specified station in Chester County.

As required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, 44 U.S.C. 3501-3519 (PRA), the Surface Transportation Board (STB or Board) has submitted a request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for an extension of approval for the collection of the Rail Fuel Surcharge Report. The Board previously published a notice about this collection in the Federal Register on June 29, 2010, at 75 FR 37,522. That notice allowed for a 60-day public review and comment period. No comments were received. The current notice corrects an error in prior notices about this report, which incorrectly stated that the frequency of the collection was monthly with a per-response burden of one hour. As correctly stated in this notice, the reports are collected quarterly with a per-response burden of 3 hours. The Rail Fuel Surcharge Report is described in detail below. Comments may now be submitted to OMB concerning (1) the accuracy of the Board's burden estimates; (2) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information collected; (3) ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information on the respondents, including the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of information technology, when appropriate; and (4) whether this collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the Board, including whether the collection has practical utility.

The Board is republishing its April 2, 2010 proposal to amend its rules with respect to the Three-Benchmark methodology used to adjudicate simplified rate case complaints, to include an expanded discussion of its rationale and regulatory objectives. This proposal provides for release to the parties to a Three-Benchmark proceeding of the unmasked Waybill Sample data of the defendant carrier for the 4 years that correspond with the most recently published Revenue Shortfall Allocation Method (RSAM) figures. The parties would then use the released Waybill Sample data to form their traffic comparison groups. The Board seeks comments concerning the amount of data that would be available under the proposed rule, and the proposal that the parties would be permitted to draw from all 4 years of waybill data to form their comparison groups.