WASHINGTON - The Surface Transportation Board will hold a public hearing beginning March 7 on railroad consolidation and the structure of the North American railroad industry.

The STB said the hearing was prompted in part by the proposed merger of BNSF and CN.

In scheduling the hearing, the STB noted that it did not intend to prejudge the as-yet-unfiled BNSF-CN merger application, but would provide a forum for discussion of broader matters that have arisen since the merger was proposed in December.

The STB said it wanted to hear from all interested persons about their concerns over the BNSF-CN deal's potential for sparking further consolidation and about the way the industry is regulated. It also invited interested parties to address whether these developments would be good for large and small railroads and their shippers.

The BLE has filed a notice on intent to participate in the hearings.

DALLAS - Encouraged by the strong economy and facing higher fuel and labor costs, the nation's freight railroads are raising certain rates more aggressively than in recent years.

BNSF is notifying shippers it will raise rates for some customers as much as 4 percent in the railroad's first broad price hike since 1995. Norfolk Southern announced an identical increase for customers shipping scrap metal, paper, lumber and container freight. Top officials of UP and CSX have also signaled they intend to raise rates.

The price hikes are receiving predictably bad marks from shippers. Mike Heimowitz, a spokesman for the Chemical Manufacturers Association, said rail service in the East is still recovering from the breakup of Conrail.

"We're having a lot of service problems, and here they are giving us a rate hike. It's not really the most pleasant thing," he said.

WASHINGTON - In an effort to improve railroad safety, U.S. Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater announced a proposed rule that would require trains to sound their horns at most public highway-rail grade crossings.

"This rule, when adopted, will help prevent crashes involving trains, motor vehicles and pedestrians at highway-rail grade crossings and yet enable communities to maintain quiet in zones that need to be protected from noise," Secretary Slater said.

The rule, proposed by the FRA, was written in response to a law enacted by Congress in 1994 requiring train horns be sounded when a train approaches and enters a public highway-rail grade crossing unless certain exceptions are met to establish a quiet zone.

The proposed rule describes the safety measures that a community may employ to establish a quiet zone and yet deter drivers from taking risks at crossings. These measures include the use of four quadrant gates, channel-ization devices or crossing closures, or photo enforcement to deter violators. The rule also proposes an upper volume limit for train horns.

The BLE is reviewing the proposed rule and plans to file comments.

WASHINGTON - Eight months after the division of Conrail, the Surface Transportation Board has initiated a review of the merger.

The STB is requesting comments on the implementation of the Conrail transaction and how the various STB conditions are working. When the STB approved the joint acquisition and division of Conrail assets by CSX and Norfolk Southern in July 1998, it set conditions that included a five-year oversight period.

The STB, as it has in other rail mergers, retained jurisdiction to impose additional conditions and/or take other action if it determined it necessary to address harmful effects of the transaction.

Under that jurisdiction, the Board also requires quarterly reports from Union Pacific and BNSF on the implementation of UP's 1996 purchase of Southern Pacific and the granting of trackage rights by UP to BNSF to maintain rail competition in parts of the West.

In its July 1998 decision, the STB said it would monitor implementation of the Conrail transaction to ensure that CSX and NS adhered to the promises they made in the Conrail merger proceeding. The board, in its decision on February 9 to launch the review, said CSX and NS must file progress reports on the Conrail transaction.

The STB also said it would examine the effects that the merger has had on the relationship of short-line railroads with the larger railroads, and within the Chicago switching district; the impact on Amtrak passenger operations and regional rail passenger operations; and it would review environmental-mitigating conditions.

DETROIT - A federal administrative law judge has ordered the Detroit newspapers to reinstate 50 employees fired during the 19-month strike against the newspapers.

These are some of the same strikers who rallied with members of the BLE during the union's International Convention in Detroit during the summer of 1996. BLE Delegates attending the convention donated $20,000 to help the out-of-work newspaper strikers. ·

© 2000 Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers