WASHINGTON — In an unusual move, the company seeking to lease Colorado’s Tennessee Pass line from Union Pacific is asking that shipment of hazardous materials be prohibited from the line.
In a filing Monday with the Surface Transportation Board, Colorado, Midland & Pacific Railway — the affiliate of holding company Rio Grande Pacific which has an agreement to lease and operate the line — said it was making the move because of “the erroneous contention” that the railroad was seeking to move crude oil, coal or hazardous material via Tennessee Pass. That contention has arisen in part because of Rio Grande Pacific’s involvement in the proposed Uinta Basin Railway project, which sees to move crude oil from a remote Utah oil source to a connection with Union Pacific.
“These erroneous contentions are being made not withstanding CMPR’s emphatic statements that CMPR has no intent, much less ability” to use the line for such commodities, the filing says, “due to features … that make it logically impractical to do so. For example, the line has more than 11 miles of 3.0% grade.” To dispel such concerns, the railroad is requesting that the STB restrict the movement of crude oil, coal, and hazardous material, authorizing only transport of passengers and general commodities.
Such a restriction would generally contradict the common-carrier obligation of a railroad, requiring “transportation or service on reasonable request.” The filing notes that while such limitations are not usual, it cites as a precedent a 1996 decision limiting an operation to transportation of sand and stone.
The Colorado, Midland & Pacific agreement with Union Pacific was announced at the end of 2020 [see “Rio Grande Pacific reaches agreement with UP …,” Trains News Wire, Dec. 31, 2020]. The prospect of reviving the line, dormant since 1997, has brought a host of opposition from communities, trackside residents, and environmental groups [see “Digest: Conservation groups ask STB for full environmental review …,” News Wire, Jan. 25, 2021], leading the STB to review aspects of the proposed lease and delay the exemption that would have allowed the lease to take effect [see “Federal regulators delay lease …,” News Wire, Jan. 29, 2021].
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