Mailing-List: list dandh@...; contact dandh-owner@...
Date: Sat, 4 Mar 2000 14:40:22 -0500
Subject: [dandh] Fw: SURFACE TRANSPORTATION BOARD FINDS NO BASIS ON WHICH
TO REVISIT 10-YEAR-OLD DECISION IN ORDER TO BLOCK TRANSFER OF TRAIN
DISPATCHING FUNCTION TO MONTREAL
From: "Danny Boehr" <dannyb2@...>
----- Original Message -----
From: <Administrator@...>
To: <Dannyb2@...>
Sent: Thursday, March 02, 2000 12:05 PM
Subject: SURFACE TRANSPORTATION BOARD FINDS NO BASIS ON WHICH TO REVISIT
10-YEAR-OLD DECISION IN ORDER TO BLOCK TRANSFER OF TRAIN DISPATCHING
FUNCTION TO MONTREAL
* * * * * * * * * *
Originally posted by CN=News Clips/O=STB
* * * * * * * * * *
Surface Transportation Board (Board) Chairman Linda J. Morgan announced
that the Board has today issued a decision finding that it is unable,
based
on the record before it, to reopen a proceeding decided 10 years ago
authorizing the Canadian Pacific Railway Company (CP) to acquire the
assets
of the bankrupt Delaware and Hudson Railway Company (D&H).
In December 1998, the Board issued a decision granting the request of the
American Train Dispatchers Department of the International Brotherhood of
Locomotive Engineers (ATDD) that CP be blocked from transferring train
dispatching functions to Montreal, Canada. That decision, which arose in
the context of review of an arbitrator's ruling concerning employee
protection issues associated with the CP/D&H transaction, was based on
safety concerns that had been voiced by officials of the Federal Railroad
Administration (FRA), an agency within the Department of Transportation
(DOT), in letters written to the private parties. In December 1999,
however, the Board's decision was vacated by the United States Court of
Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The court found that the
FRA
letters, which pointed out that Canadian hours of service laws are
different from those in the United States, and that Canadian workers are
not subject to random drug testing, did not provide a basis for
overturning
the arbitrator's ruling allowing the proposed transfer of dispatching
functions to Canada.
After the D.C. Circuit's action, ATDD asked the Board to issue a new
decision that would again block the transfer of dispatching functions to
Montreal, and this time one that would reopen the underlying CP/C&H
proceeding. ATDD's request was based on the same FRA letters on which the
Board had relied in first enjoining the dispatching transfer in the
decision which the reviewing court vacated. DOT also filed a formal
pleading at the Board supporting ATDD's request. Its pleading, however,
simply reiterated the concerns expressed earlier by FRA, and indicated
that
FRA intended to begin a rulemaking proceeding in the near future to
consider the issue. The Board found that it could not issue an order
blocking the transfer. In its decision, the Board stated:
"[W]e give great weight to the views of the [FRA, the] Federal body with
expertise in rail safety. In its pleading, DOT hypothesizes as to several
potential safety issues but concedes that it does "not at this juncture
know whether the movement of dispatching operations for [domestic] rail
lines to locations outside the United States should be allowed, allowed
subject to conditions, or prohibited." DOT has not suggested when FRA
would conclude its rulemaking and be prepared to provide its views on
whether the potential safety concerns that it has identified necessitate
any remedial action. Given DOT's own uncertainty as to whether corrective
action is required, it would be premature for us to reopen the underlying
acquisition proceeding to impose a condition foreclosing CP's right to
transfer the dispatching function to Canada. Moreover, for us to
institute
an investigation at this time would be needlessly duplicative of FRA's
efforts. When FRA has better formulated its position regarding the
magnitude of any safety problem that might be identified and what
conditions, if any, might be appropriate regarding Canadian-based
dispatching, we will be better able to assess whether or not it would be
appropriate to reopen this proceeding to consider any request by FRA for a
specific condition. If there are any urgent safety problems in the
meantime, FRA, which . . . is the agency principally responsible for rail
safety, can exercise its own emergency powers."
The Board's decision was issued on March 2, 2000, in Canadian Pacific
Limited, Et Al. --Purchase and Trackage Rights--Delaware & Hudson Railway
Company, STB Finance Docket No. 31700.
###
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