FOR RELEASE	Contact: Dennis Watson
05/04/99 (Tuesday)	(202) 565-1596
No. 99-18	FIRS 1 (800) 877-8339
	www.stb.gov

PUBLIC AND MEDIA ADVISORY: SURFACE TRANSPORTATION BOARD TO RELOCATE INFORMATION, RECEPTION, & SECURITY FACILITIES EFFECTIVE MAY 10, 1999

Surface Transportation Board (Board) Chairman Linda J. Morgan announced today that, beginning Monday, May 10, 1999, the Board's public information desk, reception area, and security checkpoint will be located in Suite 100 on the First Floor of the Board's offices in the Mercury Building at 1925 K Street, N.W., in Washington, D.C. This relocation will facilitate the ease of public access to the Board's information desk, reception area, and security checkpoint, and will minimize disruptions to Board staff at work on the Board's upper floors.

The Board's information, reception, and security facilities now are located immediately near or in Suite 700 on the Seventh Floor of the Mercury Building. Currently, those making deliveries to, or pickups from, the Board, or seeking information at the reception desk; the viewing of daily postings of Board decisions; copies of recently issued news releases; and/or the conduct of other business must first proceed by elevators to the Seventh Floor. To make access to the Board more efficient and expeditious for the public, on May 10 the Board will relocate its information, reception, and security areas to Suite 100 on the First Floor. Suite 100 is situated on the north end of the Mercury Building, opposite the first-floor entrance to the Brick Room used by the Board for overflow seating during public hearings.

Beginning May 10, a specific area in Suite 100 will be provided for the viewing of Board decisions posted daily, for news release retrieval, and for the viewing of official transcripts of Board proceedings. Upon checking in at the security checkpoint in Suite 100, visitors, couriers, and delivery personnel will be provided with floor-specific elevator passes permitting access only to the desired upper floor of the Board's offices, or arrangements will be made for escort to a particular office. With the obvious exception of larger Board items (such as boxes of official records destined for archival storage) intended for vehicular pickup at the Board's loading dock at the rear of the Mercury Building, all items arranged for pickup by "walk-in" visitors, couriers, or designated persons will be kept at the Information Desk in Suite 100 until they are retrieved.

Effective May 10, telephone numbers for those responsible for public access are as follows:

Information Officer: (202) 565-1674 (Case status, pleadings, and service-list information.)

Security Guard Station, Suite 100: (202) 565-1704.

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