Union Pacific Railroad Company-Abandonment Exemption-in McLennan County, Tex.
Federal Register, Volume 83 Issue 68 (Monday, April 9, 2018)
Federal Register Volume 83, Number 68 (Monday, April 9, 2018)
Notices
Pages 15189-15190
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov
FR Doc No: 2018-07226
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SURFACE TRANSPORTATION BOARD
Docket No. AB 33 (Sub-No. 334X)
Union Pacific Railroad Company--Abandonment Exemption--in McLennan County, Tex.
Union Pacific Railroad Company (UP) has filed a verified notice of exemption under 49 CFR pt. 1152 subpart F-Exempt Abandonments and Discontinuance of Service to abandon 0.5 miles of the former Mart Line near Waco, Tex., between milepost 173.2 and milepost 173.7 near the TX 340 Loop crossing, in McLennan County, Tex. (the Line). The Line traverses United States Postal Service Zip Code 76705.\1\
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\1\ UP filed this notice simultaneously with a verified notice of exemption for discontinuance of service over a portion of rail line connected to the Line at milepost 173.7. That notice is being considered in a separate docket. See Union Pac. R.R.--Discontinuance of Serv. Exemption--in McLennan Cty., Tex., AB 33 (Sub-No. 335X) (STB served April 9, 2018).
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UP has certified that: (1) No local or overhead traffic has moved over the Line for at least two years; (2) there is no need to reroute any traffic over other lines; (3) no formal complaint filed by a user of rail service on the Line (or by a state or local government entity acting on behalf of such user) regarding cessation of service over the Line either is pending with the Surface Transportation Board (Board) or with any U.S. District Court or has been decided in favor of complainant within the two-year period; and (4) the requirements at 49 CFR 1105.7(c) (environmental report), 49 CFR 1105.12 (newspaper publication), and 49 CFR 1152.50(d)(1) (notice to governmental agencies) have been met.
Page 15190
As a condition to this exemption, any employee adversely affected by the abandonment shall be protected under Oregon Short Line Railroad--Abandonment Portion Goshen Branch Between Firth & Ammon, in Bingham & Bonneville Counties, Idaho, 360 I.C.C. 91 (1979). To address whether this condition adequately protects affected employees, a petition for partial revocation under 49 U.S.C. 10502(d) must be filed.
Provided no formal expression of intent to file an offer of financial assistance (OFA) \2\ has been received, this exemption will be effective on May 9, 2018, unless stayed pending reconsideration. Petitions to stay that do not involve environmental issues,\3\ formal expressions of intent to file an OFA under 49 CFR 1152.27(c)(2),\4\ and interim trail use/rail banking requests under 49 CFR 1152.29 must be filed by April 19, 2018. Petitions to reopen or requests for public use conditions under 49 CFR 1152.28 must be filed by April 30, 2018, with the Surface Transportation Board, 395 E Street SW, Washington, DC 20423-0001.
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\2\ The Board modified its OFA procedures effective July 29, 2017. Among other things, the OFA process now requires potential offerors, in their formal expression of intent, to make a preliminary financial responsibility showing based on a calculation using information contained in the carrier's filing and publicly available information. See Offers of Financial Assistance, EP 729 (STB served June 29, 2017); 82 FR 30,997 (July 5, 2017).
\3\ The Board will grant a stay if an informed decision on environmental issues (whether raised by a party or by the Board's Office of Environmental Analysis (OEA) in its independent investigation) cannot be made before the exemption's effective date. See Exemption of Out-of-Serv. Rail Lines, 5 I.C.C.2d 377 (1989). Any request for a stay should be filed as soon as possible so that the Board may take appropriate action before the exemption's effective date.
\4\ Each OFA must be accompanied by the filing fee, which is currently set at $1,800. See Regulations Governing Fees for Servs. Performed in Connection with Licensing & Related Servs.--2017 Update, EP 542 (Sub-No. 25), slip op. App. C at 20 (STB served July 28, 2017).
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A copy of any petition filed with the Board should be sent to UP's representative: Jeremy M. Berman, 1400 Douglas St., #1580, Omaha, NE 68179.
If the verified notice contains false or misleading information, the exemption is void ab initio.
UP has filed a combined environmental and historic report that addresses the effects, if any, of the abandonment on the environment and historic resources. OEA will issue an environmental assessment (EA) by April 13, 2018. Interested persons may obtain a copy of the EA by writing to OEA (Room 1100, Surface Transportation Board, Washington, DC 20423-0001) or by calling OEA at (202) 245-0305. Assistance for the hearing impaired is available through the Federal Information Relay Service at (800) 877-8339. Comments on environmental and historic preservation matters must be filed within 15 days after the EA becomes available to the public.
Environmental, historic preservation, public use, or trail use/rail banking conditions will be imposed, where appropriate, in a subsequent decision.
Pursuant to 49 CFR 1152.29(e)(2), UP shall file a notice of consummation with the Board to signify that it has exercised the authority granted and fully abandoned the Line. If consummation has not been effected by UP's filing of a notice of consummation by April 9, 2019, and there are no legal or regulatory barriers to consummation, the authority to abandon will automatically expire.
Board decisions and notices are available on our website at WWW.STB.GOV.
Decided: April 4, 2018.
By the Board, Scott M. Zimmerman, Acting Director, Office of Proceedings.
Marline Simeon,
Clearance Clerk.
FR Doc. 2018-07226 Filed 4-6-18; 8:45 am
BILLING CODE 4915-01-P
