STB

Commentary

• November 17, 2015
• Class I

CP-NS transcon a craps table roll

Few obstacles bedevil railroads as has the Mississippi River. Spanning it was the nation’s first rail bridge in 1856—promptly assaulted by steamboat Effie Afton. While the bridge was repaired and more constructed, the river remains a problematic divide, separating, with few exceptions, eastern railroads from those operating in the West and producing grueling interchange bottlenecks at Chicago.

• November 10, 2015
• Class I

CP + NS is in play: Reports

Canadian Pacific Railway has held early-stage merger talks with Norfolk Southern and is raising financing for an acquisition, according to Nov. 9, 2015 news reports citing confidential sources at both carriers. NS stock jumped 11%, the most since 2008, to $88.62 at the close of the New York Stock Exchange, while CP’s 5.7% rally to C$188.79 on the Toronto Stock Exchange was its biggest gain since 2013.

• November 09, 2015
• Class I

STB to hold rail service performance data meetings

The Surface Transportation Board (STB) announced Nov. 9, 2015 that its staff will hold informal meetings with stakeholders between Nov. 16, 2015 and Dec. 7, 2015, on proposed rules for reporting railroad service performance data in the pending proceeding United States Rail Service Issues, EP 724.

• November 06, 2015
• Class I

Linda J. Morgan, 1952-2015

Linda J. Morgan, 63, the former U.S. Surface Transportation Board Chair who led the agency during the railroad megamergers of the 1990s, died Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2015, after a long battle with cancer.

• September 10, 2015
• Regulatory

CURE reinvents itself as FRCA

Long-time advocate for freight rail shippers Consumers United for Rail Equity (CURE) announced on Sept. 10, 2015 “a new name and a new advocacy approach.”

• August 12, 2015
• Class I

STB sets 2014 rail cost of capital at 10.65%

The Surface Transportation Board has set the rail industry’s 2014 after-tax cost of capital at 10.65%, some 6% lower than the 2013 figure of 11.32%.

• August 06, 2015
• Class I

STB extends deadline on Tongue River Railroad Draft EIS

The Surface Transportation Board’s (STB) Office of Environmental Analysis (OEA) has issued a notice extending the deadline—for a second time—for filing comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Tongue River Railroad Co.’s (TRRC) planned construction and operation of nearly 42 miles of new common carrier line, between Colstrip, Mont., and the state’s Ashland/Otter Creek areas, to September 23, 2015.

• July 15, 2015
• Class I

EIA reports rise in oil shipments from Rocky Mountain states

Based on data from the Surface Transportation Board (STB) and Petroleum Supply Monthly, the U.S. Energy Information Administration has reported that rail and pipeline shipments of crude oil from the Rocky Mountain region have steadily increased as regional crude oil production has increased.

• June 26, 2015
• Freight Cars

Elliott sworn in as STB Chairman

Daniel R. Elliott III was sworn in as the Surface Transportation Board’s (STB) Chairman on June 26, 2015, pledging to promote transparency and improve and streamline regulation of the nation’s freight railroads.

Commentary

• June 23, 2015
• News

Unemployed no more, Elliott returns to STB

Following almost six months of unemployment, and nearly a year of dining on the gristle of uncertainty, Dan Elliott is returning to the Surface Transportation Board following voice-vote Senate confirmation June 22. President Obama previously said he would rename Elliott as agency chairman upon confirmation. Fellow Democrat Deb Miller has been serving as acting chairman of the three-member STB since Jan. 1.