In a “first,” STB fines CN for misreporting

In the first fine imposed by the Surface Transportation Board since itsinception in 1996, Canadian National has been ordered to pay $250,000 for”knowingly violating board orders” regarding the reporting ofstreet-crossing blockages in the Chicago area. At the same time the boardextended its oversight of the CN-Elgin, Joliet and Eastern merger for anadditional year.

Noting that it required CN National to report every street-crossingblockage of 10 minutes or more as a condition of the board’s approval of the2008 merger, STB said in a decision issued Dec. 21: "In its November andDecember 2009 monthly reports, the railroad reported a total of 14 blockagescaused by stopped trains. But an independent audit conducted on behalf ofthe board by its third-party consultant, HDR Inc., found 1,457 instancesduring that same period of crossings blocked for 10 minutes or more bystopped or slowly moving trains. 

The board, which held hearing on the mater lest April, found in itsdecision this week that the record “supports the conclusion that CN hasknowingly violated the Board’s orders that CN report, on monthly andquarterly bases, the date and descriptive information for each crossingblockage exceeding 10 minutes in duration. CN’s alleged ‘good faith’interpretation that the reporting requirements regarded only stopped trainsis contradicted by both the CN staff admissions and the plain text of theApproval Decision.”

Commissioner Charles D. Nottingham dissented from the decision to impose thefine.