Pennsylvania & Southern Railway (PSCC), part of the Rail Enterprise Group, has filed a verified notice of exemption under 49 CFR 1150.41 to purchase approximately 25 miles of rail line and associated right-of-way serving the Cumberland Valley Business Park and the Letterkenny Army Depot near Chambersburg, Pa. (the lines).
PSCC, which has operated over the lines since 2004 through an agreement with the Franklin County General Authority, is now seeking authority to acquire ownership, according to a Surface Transportation Board (STB) notice in the Federal Register’s July 6 edition (download below).
The purchase is expected to provide the Class III “with incentive” to invest in the tracks and further develop the rail business.
The 1,200-acre Cumberland Valley Business Park features more than one million square feet of space and hundreds of acres of industrial-zoned land. It is located along the I-81 corridor between Harrisburg, Pa., and Hagerstown, Md. PSCC and its transload, warehousing and reload partners “provide seamless and timely transportation solutions for businesses shipping products to, through or from the region,” according to the railroad, which connects with CSX.
According to the STB, “The verified notice states that the parties entered into an Agreement of Sale for PSCC to own and operate the Lines and that the transaction closed at the end of September 2022. PSCC states that, because it was already the operator of the Lines, it inadvertently did not file for the acquisition of the Lines at that time. PSCC states that it will commence operation of the Lines as the owner pursuant to the agreement as of the effective date of this notice of exemption.”
Additionally, PSCC certified that the proposed acquisition “does not involve any interchange commitments,” and that its projected revenues as a result of the transaction “will not exceed $5 million,” STB reported. The transaction is “categorically excluded from environmental review under 49 CFR 1105.6(c) and from historic reporting requirements under 49 CFR 1105.8(b),” according to the STB notice.
The transaction can go forward on or after July 20, 2023, the effective date of the exemption (30 days after the verified notice was filed). Petitions for stay must be filed no later than July 13, 2023.
