[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 206 (Friday, October 24, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 61040-61041]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-26742]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Surface Transportation Board

[STB Docket Nos. AB-124 (Sub-No. 2) and AB-279 (Sub-No. 3)]


Waterloo Railway Company--Adverse Abandonment--Lines of Bangor 
and Aroostook Railroad Company and Van Buren Bridge Company in 
Aroostook County, ME; Canadian National Railway Company--Adverse 
Discontinuance--Lines of Bangor and Aroostook Railroad Company and Van 
Buren Bridge Company in Aroostook County, ME

    On October 6, 2003, the Trustee of the Bangor and Aroostook 
Railroad Company (BAR), et al. (the Trustee), filed with the Surface 
Transportation Board an application under 49 U.S.C. 10903 \1\ seeking: 
(a) In STB Docket No. AB-279 (Sub-No. 3), the adverse (involuntary) 
discontinuance of certain trackage rights acquired by the Canadian 
National Railway Company (CN) from BAR and its wholly owned subsidiary, 
the Van Buren Bridge Company; and (b) in STB Finance Docket No. AB-124 
(Sub-No. 2), the adverse (involuntary) abandonment of the operating 
easement acquired by a CN subsidiary, the Waterloo Railway Company 
(Waterloo), over the same lines.\2\ The lines run between Madawaska, 
ME, and the Canadian border, and serve a mill owned by Fraser Papers 
Inc. (Fraser) at Madawaska, ME. The lines are now owned by the 
Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway, Ltd. (MMA), which purchased them 
from the estate of the bankrupt BAR on January 9, 2003. They are fully 
operational rail lines used by CN to serve the plant of Fraser at 
Madawaska.
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    \1\ The Trustee contends that the bankruptcy law at 11 U.S.C. 
1170 applies to this application, meaning that the Board's decision 
would constitute an advisory report to the Bankruptcy Court. The 
matter is currently before the United States District Court for the 
District of Maine.
    \2\ The lines involved in the trackage rights and easement are 
more precisely described as follows: (1) A line between 
approximately Milepost (MP) 0.0 at Madawaska, ME, and approximately 
MP 22.72 at Van Buren (Canadian Junction), ME; and (2) a line 
between approximately MP 0.0 at Van Buren (Canadian Junction), ME, 
and approximately MP 0.31 at the United States-Canada border, a 
total distance of approximately 23 route miles in Aroostook County, 
ME. The lines include the stations of Madawaska (MP 0.0), N CL Sign 
Madawaska (MP 1.25), Saint David (MP 4.20), and Grand Isle (MP 8.66) 
and traverse Postal Service ZIP Codes 04756, 04773, 04746, 04749, 
and 04785.
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    The Trustee seeks to terminate CN's authority to serve Fraser over 
the lines. This would leave MMA as the only carrier with authority to 
serve that shipper over the lines. For additional background 
information, see the Board's decision served on June 25, 2002, in 
Canadian National Railway Company--Trackage Rights Exemption--Bangor 
and Aroostook Railroad Company and Van Buren Bridge Company, STB 
Finance Docket Nos. 34014, et al.
    The Trustee maintains that termination of CN's authority to serve 
Fraser, leaving MMA as the serving carrier, is required by the 
``present or future public convenience and necessity'' under 49 U.S.C. 
10903. The Trustee contends that, under either 49 U.S.C. 10903 or 11 
U.S.C. 1170, the public interest will be served by discontinuance of 
the CN trackage rights and abandonment of the Waterloo easement, 
because the potential harm to the BAR estate, the new owner of the 
former BAR system (MMA), and its shippers and the communities it serves 
from the continued existence of the CN trackage rights and Waterloo 
easement substantially outweighs the potential

[[Page 61041]]

harm to Fraser and CN from discontinuance of the trackage rights and 
abandonment of the easement. In adverse abandonment and discontinuance 
proceedings, the Board considers whether to withdraw its primary 
jurisdiction to permit the operation of state, local, or, as here, 
other Federal law to take affect. See Modern Handcraft, Inc.--
Abandonment, 363 I.C.C. 969 (1981); Kansas City Pub. Ser. Frt. 
Operations--Exempt.--Aban., 7 I.C.C.2d 216 (1990).
    The applicant's entire case for discontinuance and abandonment was 
filed with the application.\3\ Any interested person may file with the 
Board a statement protesting or commenting on the Trustee's application 
for adverse abandonment and discontinuance. Interested persons who wish 
to participate actively and fully in these proceedings should submit 
their entire case in the form of argument and verified witness 
statements containing detailed evidence and the information required by 
49 CFR 1152.25(a)(1), to the extent that it is needed or appropriate in 
this type of proceeding.\4\ Those who do not wish to participate fully 
by the filing of witness statements may file comments. Those submitting 
detailed evidence or comments may also submit the information described 
in 49 CFR 1152.24(a)(2), to the extent that it is needed or appropriate 
(see footnote 4, above).
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    \3\ In decisions served on September 25, 2002, and October 23, 
2002, the Board approved exemptions from statutory provisions and 
waiver of regulatory requirements that were designed for typical 
abandonment and discontinuance proceedings, where carriers 
voluntarily seek to terminate a service obligation that protestants 
may wish to preserve, but were not intended to apply to adverse 
abandonment or discontinuance proceedings.
    \4\ This provision was developed for typical abandonment 
proceedings, where carriers voluntarily seek to terminate a service 
obligation that protestants may wish to preserve, rather than 
proceedings where, as here, the serving carrier (CN) seeks to 
continue its right to provide service and service by another carrier 
(MMA) would continue even if the application is granted.
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    The interests of employees will be protected by the conditions set 
forth in Oregon Short Line R. Co.--Abandonment--Goshen, 360 I.C.C. 91 
(1979).
    All filings in response to this notice, and every document filed 
with the Board in these proceedings, must identify these proceedings by 
their docket numbers, i.e., STB Docket Nos. AB-124 (Sub-No. 2) and AB-
279 (Sub-No. 3), and should be served on: (1) Surface Transportation 
Board, 1925 K Street, NW., Washington, DC 20423-0001; (2) Kevin M. 
Sheys, Kirkpatrick & Lockhart LLP, 1800 Massachusetts Avenue, NW., 
Washington, DC 20036-1221 [Trustee's representative]; (3) William C. 
Sippel, Fletcher & Sippel LLC, 29 North Wacker Drive, Suite 920, 
Chicago, IL 60606-2875 [CN's representative]; and (4) Carolyn F. 
Corwin, Covington & Burling, 1201 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, 
DC 20004-2401 [intervener MMA's representative]. The original and 10 
copies of all comments or protests shall be filed with the Board, 
together with a certificate of service.
    All comments or protests must be filed by November 20, 2003.
    Persons seeking information concerning the filing of statements may 
contact the Board's Office of Public Services at (202) 565-1592 or 
refer to the full abandonment and discontinuance regulations at 49 CFR 
part 1152. [Assistance for the hearing impaired is available through 
the Federal Information Relay Services (FIRS) at 1-800-877-8339.] Board 
decisions and notices are available on our Web site at ``http://www.stb.dot.gov.''

    Decided: October 17, 2003.

    By the Board, David M. Konschnik, Director, Office of 
Proceedings.
Vernon A. Williams,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 03-26742 Filed 10-23-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4915-00-P