STB Ex Parte No 677 Closed

Yesterday the Surface Transportation Board closed out a number of Ex Parte dockets where the purpose of the proceedings has been met. While these information collection dockets all deal with railroad operations, there is one in particular that will be of interest to the chemical security community; STB Ex Parte No 677, the Common Carrier Obligation of Railroads, was one of the dockets that was closed out. Readers might recall that this docket was ‘served’ (an interesting legal term) Feb. 22, 2008 as an inquiry into whether or not railroads had a legal obligation to carry hazardous materials. It has been a legal truism that railroads, because they were effectively regulated monopolies, are required to accept all ‘properly packaged’ shipments {49 U.S.C. 11101(a)}. The railroads have been questioning this doctrine because they bear the financial risk of an accidental (or deliberate terrorist) release of chemicals like chlorine gas or anhydrous ammonia or any of any number of other TIH chemicals. In closing out this docket the STB has not reached a ‘decision’ on the issue. They were simply collecting information and opinions. A major reason that they have not made a decision is that Congress will probably have to legislate any change to this doctrine. Interestingly a part of that docket was left open {STB Ex Parte 677 (Sub-No. 1)}. A public hearing was held on July 16th that addressed specifically the hazardous material’s aspect of the ‘common carrier obligation’. No comment on why this part of the docket was left open. BTW: The STB has continued to maintain their enforcement of the railroads common carrier obligation to carry hazardous materials, most importantly in UP v USM (STB Finance Docket No. 35219).