E8-13312. Norfolk Southern Railway Company-Discontinuance of Service Exemption-in St. Joseph and LaPorte Counties, IN

Norfolk Southern Railway Company (NSR) has filed a verified notice of exemption under 49 CFR part 1152 Subpart F— Exempt Abandonments and Discontinuances of Service to discontinue service over a 4.40-mile line of railroad between milepost 131.60 and milepost 136.00 in St. Joseph and LaPorte Counties, IN. The line traverses United States Postal Service Zip Code 46574, and includes the station of Kankakee.

NSR has certified that: (1) No local traffic has moved over the line for at least 2 years; (2) all overhead traffic has been 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 (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 of 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 service discontinuance 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 July 18, 2008, 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 June 30, 2008.^[2] Petitions to reopen must be filed by July 8, 2008, 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 NSR's representative: James R. Paschall, Three Commercial Place, Norfolk, VA 23510.

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.

Decided: June 6, 2008.

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

Anne K. Quinlan,

Acting 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.  In discontinuance proceedings, 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.