STB signals broader protection for rail-served projects against state and local restrictions
New policy statement questions earlier decisions involving customer-owned terminals and outlines stronger arguments against taking railroad property.
The Surface Transportation Board is signaling that state and local restrictions on rail customers’ facilities may face greater scrutiny under federal law, issuing a sweeping policy statement that questions aspects of earlier agency decisions involving privately owned terminals and other rail-served projects.
The statement, which becomes final Nov. 9, also lays out arguments for treating government or private efforts to take exclusive possession of railroad rights-of-way as categorically preempted — potentially avoiding a detailed inquiry into how each taking would affect train operations.
The document essentially serves as a consolidation of existing law, and suggests potentially stronger federal protection for rail infrastructure and access to freight service, while stopping short of binding decisions or a blanket exemption from state and local oversight.
“The Board is not making any binding determinations in this policy statement,” the agency says. Individual disputes will still turn on their facts, circumstances and applicable law.
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