[Federal Register Volume 59, Number 76 (Wednesday, April 20, 1994)]
[Unknown Section]
[Page 0]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 94-9497]


[[Page Unknown]]

[Federal Register: April 20, 1994]


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INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION
[Finance Docket No. 32484]

 

Exemption; Georgia-Pacific Corporation--Continuance in Control 
Exemption--Blue Rapids Railway Co.

    Georgia-Pacific Corporation (G-P) has filed a notice of exemption 
to continue in control of Blue Rapids Railway Company (BR), upon BR 
becoming a class III rail carrier.
    BR, a noncarrier, has concurrently filed a notice of exemption in 
Blue Rapids Railway Company--Acquisition and Operation Exemption--Rail 
Line of Union Pacific Railroad Company, Finance Docket No. 32483, to 
acquire and operate 10.00 miles of rail line, known as the Bestwall 
Line, owned by Union Pacific Railroad Company.1 That exemption was 
expected to be consummated on or after April 1, 1994.
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    \1\BR intends to enter into an agreement with a nonaffiliated 
carrier, the Northeast Kansas & Missouri Railroad Division of the 
Mid-Michigan Railroad, Inc., to operate the line after restoration 
of the line and that carrier obtains appropriate authorization.
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    G-P, primarily a manufacturer and processor of paper and other 
forest products and incidentally a motor carrier,2 controls seven 
shortline class III rail carrier subsidiaries and indicates that:
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    \2\G-P, doing business as Pulp and Paper Transport, is a motor 
carrier holding authority under No. MC-36322. Notwithstanding the 
limitation of 49 U.S.C. 10505(g)(1) forbidding exemptions 
authorizing intermodal ownership that is otherwise prohibited under 
49 U.S.C. Subtitle IV, G-P's motor carrier status does not impose 
any obstacle to exemption of G-P's continuance in control of BR 
after it becomes a rail carrier. The only possibly relevant 
statutory limitation on intermodal ownership is in 49 U.S.C. 
11344(c), which applies only when the applicant is a rail carrier or 
person controlled by a rail carrier or affiliated with a rail 
carrier and the transaction involves a motor carrier. G-P's only 
affiliation with rail carriers is with those it controls and section 
11344(c) does not limit the acquisition by motor carriers (or 
noncarriers controlling motor carriers) of rail carriers. Amador 
Central Railroad Company and Georgia-Pacific Corporation--Exemption 
from 49 U.S.C. 11343, Finance Docket No. 31266 (ICC served May 23, 
1989); see also, S. Rep. No. 445, 87 Cong., 1st Sess. 138, 144 
(1961), Stone Container Corporation--Control Exemption--Abbeville-
Grimes Railway Company, Finance Docket No. 31233, Slip op. 3 (ICC 
served May 23, 1988), and the cases cited there.
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    (1) The rail line to be acquired and operated will not connect with 
any G-P rail subsidiaries;
    (2) The continuance in control is not a part of a series of 
anticipated transactions that would connect the railroads with each 
other or any other railroad in their corporate family; and
    (3) The transaction does not involve a class I carrier. The 
transaction therefore is exempt from the prior approval requirements of 
49 U.S.C. 11343. See 49 CFR 1180.2(d)(2).
    As a condition to use of this exemption, any employees affected by 
the transaction will be protected by the conditions set forth in New 
York Dock Ry.--Control--Brooklyn Eastern Dist., 360 I.C.C. 60 (1979).
    Petitions to revoke the exemption under 49 U.S.C. 10505(d) may be 
filed at any time. The filing of a petition to revoke will not 
automatically stay the transaction. Pleadings must be filed with the 
Commission and served on: Eugenia Langan, 1800 Massachusetts Avenue, 
NW., Washington, DC 20036.

    Decided: April 13, 1994.

    By the Commission, David M. Konschnik, Director, Office of 
Proceedings.
Sidney L. Strickland, Jr.,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 94-9497 Filed 4-19-94; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7035-01-P