WASHINGTON – For the second time in the past three months, federal regulators are being asked to settle a dispute related to Union Pacific’s 1996 acquisition of Southern Pacific.
BNSF Railway has requested that the Surface Transportation Board allow it to access a UP-served quarry in Arkansas. In a filing that appeared on the STB website today, BNSF says UP has denied BNSF access to the Granite Mountain Quarries in Little Rock despite the quarry’s request for service from a second railroad.
BNSF contends that it has the right to serve the quarry as a condition of the STB’s approval of the UP-SP merger. Prior to the merger, the quarry was served by both UP and SP subsidiary Cotton Belt. That, BNSF says, makes the quarry a so-called “2-to-1” location that qualifies for competitive service from a second railroad.
UP contends that’s not the case because the quarry also has been served by short line Little Rock and Western Railway via a reciprocal switch with UP. But BNSF says that since the Little Rock and Western could only interchange with UP or SP, it means that BNSF should have the right to access the facility.
“Over the last year, Union Pacific Railroad … has repeatedly refused – for a variety of inconsistent and unsupported reasons – to allow … Granite Mountain Quarries … to benefit from competitive access by BNSF Railway,” BNSF said in the filing.
BNSF in December asked the STB to ensure that it can interchange with the Savage Tooele Railroad, a proposed short line that aims to serve a business park that’s under construction southwest of Salt Lake City.
UP says BNSF should not be able to access the Savage Tooele because it connects with a UP connecting track, not directly to the Shafter Subdivision where BNSF has trackage rights.
It’s not clear how much traffic from Granite Mountain Quarries we are talking about, but Granite Mountain could threaten to switch to trucks and road haul everything to BNSF if UP insists on not listening to their customer’s request.