FOR RELEASE	Contact: Dennis Watson
11/17/99 (Wednesday)	(202) 565-1596
No. 99-47	FIRS 1 (800) 877-8339
	www.stb.gov

SURFACE TRANSPORTATION BOARD DENIES "SOO LINE RAILROAD" RAIL LINE ABANDONMENT IN SOUTH DAKOTA

Surface Transportation Board (Board) Chairman Linda J. Morgan announced today that the Board has denied a request by Soo Line Railroad Company, doing business as Canadian Pacific Railway (Soo), to abandon approximately 27.5 miles of its railroad line from Rosholt to the end of the line near Veblen, in Marshall and Roberts Counties, SD.

The Board ruled against Soo because of substantial public opposition to the abandonment and Soo's failure to support the data that it presented in its petition for exemption. Most of the opposition concerned the line segment from Rosholt to Claire City and the adverse impact that a loss of rail service would have on Claire City and the farming economy of northeast South Dakota. Although there was less opposition and little or no current traffic on the segment between Claire City and Veblen, Soo did not bifurcate its data so as to permit the Board to analyze that segment independently. Denial of the petition was without prejudice to Soo's refiling an appropriate abandonment application or a petition for exemption that cures the defects found in the current proposal. The Board noted that if Soo does refile, it may choose to bifurcate any future proposal between the two segments and file them independently.

The Board's decision in Soo Line Railroad Company--Abandonment Exemption--In Marshall and Roberts Counties, SD, STB Docket No. AB-57 (Sub-No. 48X), was issued on November 17, 1999. The text of the decision is available on the Board's website at www.stb.dot.gov. [STOP]