WASHINGTON — The Canadian National-Canadian Pacific Chicago interchange dispute is back before the Surface Transportation Board.
At issue: Whether CP should pick up the tab for Belt Railway of Chicago switching fees for CN-bound traffic interchanged at BRC’s Clearing Yard.
The U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in December vacated an October 2020 STB decision which said CN could not unilaterally designate Clearing Yard as the railroads’ interchange point in Chicago.
The court sent the matter back to the STB, noting that a railroad can designate a third party — like BRC — to receive interchange traffic. The ruling also said the STB did not resolve the question of who should bear the cost of the BRC’s switching services.
CN, in a filing with the STB this week, argues that CP should have to pay BRC’s switching fees for CN-bound traffic delivered to Clearing, just as CN pays the fees for CP-bound traffic handled at Clearing.
The BRC operating agreement, CN notes, requires each co-owner of the switching line to pay the BRC fees for traffic delivered to Clearing.
The railways’ dispute dates to May 2019, when CN sought to shift CP interchange from Spaulding, in Bartlett, Ill., to its own Kirk Yard in Gary, Ind. [see “Canadian Pacific, Canadian National locked in Chicago interchange dispute,” Trains News Wire, May 2, 2019]. The daily interchange at Spaulding often blocked area grade crossings and tied up CN’s busy single-track main line.
CP objected and asked the STB to intervene. CN and CP ultimately reached an interim agreement to move Spaulding interchange to Clearing, with CN temporarily reimbursing CP for the BRC’s switching fees until the STB reached a decision on the matter [see “Canadian National, Canadian Pacific settle …,” News Wire, Aug. 26, 2019].
When the board sided with CP, CN filed suit at the federal appeals court in Chicago [see “Canadian National asks federal court to overturn STB Chicago interchange order,” News Wire, Jan. 8, 2021].
Gotta make all those lawyers actually work for their paycheck.
Modern railroading at work. Never mind that CN is currently installing double track north of Spaulding all the way back to Golf Road to keep through trains from getting blocked at the signal for the diamond.
CP Spaulding Yard is on the south side of the mainline. CN’s yard supporting Spaulding is south of the diamond on the west side. So by CN adding a second set of tracks east of the current line allows through trains to pass with out being held up by the switching work.
The traffic blockage as such is at Bartlett Road where the CN yard and the mainline come back together. The crossing is at grade and remains a double track until Stearns Road. The track for the switch yard begins here and this is where the traffic problems occur as the yard crew assemble their consist from CP.
The other issue is CN stores their CP bound traffic on the far east track, which means it has to cross the mainline to reach the CP yard.
It is very easy to resolve, but there is real money involved and with so little volumes, they would rather argue with lawyers and consultants, than just simply working together to fix it permanently.