Tuesday, August 18, 1998 (202) 565-1596
No. 98-52 TDD/TDY 1 (800) 877-8339
www.stb.dot.gov
SURFACE TRANSPORTATION BOARD RECEIVES BI-WEEKLY
REPORTS TO FACILITATE CONTINUED MONITORING OF
SERVICE BY UNION PACIFIC AND BNSF
Surface Transportation Board (Board) Chairman Linda J. Morgan announced today that the Board has received its first bi-weekly reports since issuance of its order on July 31, 1998, in Ex Parte No. 573, Rail Service in the Western United States, and Service Order No. 1518 (Sub-No. 1), Joint Petition For a Further Service Order, revising the reporting requirements previously imposed on Union Pacific Railroad Company (UP) and Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company (BNSF) (see STB News Release No. 98-47, issued July 31, 1998).
Over the past 9 months, the Board has maintained an emergency service order directing certain changes in the way in which service is provided in the Houston area. In its July 31 decision, the Board addressed the status of rail service in the West, and in particular in the Houston area, in connection with the need for continued emergency service order relief. The Board found that, while service throughout the West is not at uniformly improved levels, the service emergency in Houston is over. Thus, while it provided a 45-day “wind-down” period to ensure a smooth transition, the Board found no legal basis for issuing a further emergency service order. The Board did, however, recognize the need to continue monitoring service by UP and by BNSF, particularly in view of the impending need to move grain and seasonal traffic over the next few months, and it therefore continued its requirement in Ex Parte No. 573 that the carriers file operational data to facilitate the monitoring. The recent filings represent the first of the bi-weekly data reports required under the July 31 order.
The filings, which have been placed in the Ex Parte No. 573 docket at the Board’s headquarters, are available on the UP and BNSF websites, and in hard copy from DC News & Data, Inc., Suite 210, 1925 K Street, N.W., Washington, DC [(202) 289-4357].
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