E7-12678. Columbus and Greenville Railway Company-Discontinuance of Service Exemption-in Greenwood, MS

Columbus and Greenville Railway Company (CAGY) has filed a verified notice of exemption under 49 CFR 1152 Subpart F— Exempt Abandonments and Discontinuances of Service to discontinue service over an out-of-service line of railroad between milepost 21.2 in West Point, MS, and milepost 110.7 in Greenwood, MS, a distance of approximately 89.5 miles in Clay, Oktibbeha, Webster, Montgomery, Carroll, and Leflore Counties, MS. The line traverses United States Postal Service Zip Codes 39773, 39741, 39755, 39750, 39752, 39744, 39767, 39747, 38967, 38943, 38947, and 38930.

CAGY has certified that: (1) No local traffic has moved over the line for at least 2 years; (2) any overhead traffic on the line can be rerouted over other lines; (3) no formal complaint filed by a user of rail service on the line (or by a state or local government entity acting on behalf of such user) regarding cessation of service over the line either is pending with the Surface Transportation Board or with any U.S. District Court or has been decided in favor of complainant within the 2-year period; and (4) the requirements at 49 CFR 1105.12 (newspaper publication) and 49 CFR 1152.50(d)(1) (notice to governmental agencies) have been met.

As a condition to this exemption, any employee adversely affected by the discontinuance of service shall be protected under Oregon Short Line R. Co.—Abandonment—Goshen, 360 I.C.C. 91 (1979). To address whether this condition adequately protects affected employees, a petition for partial revocation under 49 U.S.C. 10502(d) must be filed.

Provided no formal expression of intent to file an offer of financial assistance (OFA) has been received, this exemption will be effective on August 3, 2007, unless stayed pending reconsideration. Petitions to stay that do not involve environmental issues and formal expressions of intent to file an OFA for continued rail service under 49 CFR 1152.27(c)(2),^[1] must be filed by July 13, 2007.^[2] Petitions to reopen must be filed by July 23, 2007, with: Surface Transportation Board, 395 E Street, SW., Washington, DC 20423-0001.

A copy of any petition filed with the Board should be sent to CAGY's representative: John D. Heffner, 1920 N Street, NW., Suite 800, Washington, DC 20036.

If the verified notice contains false or misleading information, the exemption is void ab initio.

Board decisions and notices are available on our Web site at http://www.stb.dot.gov.

Dated: June 26, 2007.

By the Board, David M. Konschnik, Director, Office of Proceedings.

Vernon A. Williams,

Secretary.

Footnotes

1.  Each OFA must be accompanied by the filing fee, which currently is set at $1,300. See 49 CFR 1002.2(f)(25).

2.  Because this is a discontinuance proceeding and not an abandonment, trail use/rail banking and public use conditions are not appropriate. Likewise, no environmental or historical documentation is required here under 49 CFR 1105.6(c) and 1105.8(b), respectively.