WASHINGTON — Union Pacific has urged federal regulators to squash BNSF Railway’s request to gain access a proposed short line railroad in Utah.
Last month BNSF told the Surface Transportation Board that it should have the right to connect with the Savage Tooele Railroad due to trackage rights it was granted over UP’s Shafter Subdivision as part of the UP-Southern Pacific merger.
But the way the UP-Savage Tooele deal is structured, BNSF says, creates a 1-mile barrier between the short line and the Shafter Subdivision. UP will retain control over 1.04 miles of the Warner Branch, which Western Pacific abandoned in 1983. Savage Tooele aims to revive 6 miles of the branch, restore a quarter mile of track, and connect it to 5 miles of track that it wants to build in a business park in Grantsville, Utah.
“BNSF’s motion seeks to block a procompetitive transaction designed to facilitate the development of rail service to an industrial park. BNSF recognizes it has no right to serve the park using the line at issue in this proceeding, so it has decided to play spoiler,” UP said in a regulatory filing this week.
BNSF has trackage rights on the Shafter Sub, UP told the board, but not on the Warner Branch.
UP said it wants to retain the 1.04 mile stretch of the Warner Branch, which it has been using as ancillary track.
“BNSF obtained expansive rights to use Union Pacific’s property when Union Pacific merged with Southern Pacific almost 30 years ago. But those rights have defined limits,” UP told the board. “BNSF’s belief that it is entitled to connect to STR using Union Pacific’s Warner Branch has no basis in law or reason.”
The STB is currently considering Savage’s plans as well as UP’s petition to reactivate the connecting track.
