Karen J. Hedlund has been designated Vice Chairman of the Surface Transportation Board (STB). Also, the League of Railway Women (LRW) named Trinity Industries, Inc. President and CEO Jean Savage 2022 Railway Woman of the Year; and the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) has installed its 2023 Board of Directors and Officers.
Colorado Pacific Rio Grande Railroad (CP Rio Grande) filed a verified notice of exemption to acquire and operate the approximately 149-mile San Luis & Rio Grande Railroad (SLRG) in Colorado, according to the Surface Transportation Board (STB), which on Jan. 5 reported the transaction could be consummated on or after Jan. 19, 2023.
Gus A. Owen, a Republican Member of the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) and its successor Surface Transportation Board (STB) from Oct. 4, 1994 to Dec. 31, 1998, died Dec. 17, 2022 at age 89.
Union Pacific (UP) on Dec. 29 told customers that it is implementing “catastrophic embargo #UP130022” for all traffic in and out of Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin “to maintain fluidity as this segment of the network works to move volumes” impacted by winter weather.
The Surface Transportation Board (STB) is seeking nominations for candidates to fill nine vacancies on its Rail Energy Transportation Advisory Committee (RETAC).
According to a recent study released by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), implementation of precision-scheduled railroading (PSR), a strategy to increase efficiency and reduce costs among Class I railroads, resulted in reductions in staff and assets, such as locomotives, and longer trains, but its effect on rail safety remained “inconclusive.”
The Surface Transportation Board (STB) has adopted for first-quarter 2023 the rail cost adjustment factor (RCAF), defined as “an index formulated to represent changes in railroad costs incurred by the nation’s largest railroads over a specified period of time.”
The Surface Transportation Board (STB) on Dec. 19 adopted two final rules establishing new “rate reasonableness procedures” it says “provide two streamlined approaches for shippers and railroads to resolve smaller rate disputes.” The Association of American Railroads is calling STB’s actions “fatally flawed.”
Union Pacific (UP) Chairman, President and CEO Lance Fritz on Dec. 16 advised the Surface Transportation Board (STB) that his railroad is immediately “pausing any additional embargoes under the pipeline inventory management program we began in November.”
Union Pacific and Sanimax are currently engaged in an interesting bit of litigation. It’s not a rate case or anything I worked on in my more than 15 years at the Surface Transportation Board. The question is whether UP has violated its “common carrier obligation.”