Railroad Company Officially Gives Up on Massachusetts Track
Published Date: 1/10/2025
Notice
Summary
CSX Transportation is officially ending service and abandoning a short 1.6-mile rail line in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, because no trains have used it in two years. This change affects local communities and employees, who will get job protections. The move kicks in February 9, 2025, unless someone steps up with a financial offer or legal challenge by late January.
Analyzed Economic Effects
4 provisions identified: 2 benefits, 1 costs, 1 mixed.
Job Protections for Affected Employees
Employees adversely affected by the abandonment will be protected under the Oregon Short Line Railroad decision (360 I.C.C. 91 (1979)), providing certain job protections tied to the abandonment. A petition for partial revocation under 49 U.S.C. 10502(d) can be filed to challenge whether those protections are adequate.
Short Rail Line Abandoned in Norfolk County
CSX Transportation will abandon a 1.61-mile rail line in Norfolk County, Massachusetts (mileposts QVF 18.01 to QVF 19.6, ZIP code 02038). The abandonment is set to take effect on February 9, 2025, unless someone files a financial offer, a legal challenge, or a stay by the listed late-January 2025 deadlines.
Deadlines to File Offers, Stays, and Challenges
Interested parties must act by specific late-January 2025 deadlines: petitions to stay (non-environmental) by January 17, 2025; formal expressions of intent to file an offer of financial assistance (OFA) and interim trail use/rail-banking requests by January 21, 2025; and petitions to reopen and public use requests by January 30, 2025. If no OFA is received, the exemption becomes effective February 9, 2025.
Environmental and Historic Review Schedule
The Surface Transportation Board's Office of Environmental Analysis will issue a Draft Environmental Assessment (Draft EA) by January 14, 2025; comments on environmental or historic preservation matters must be filed within 15 days after the Draft EA becomes available. Where appropriate, the Board may impose environmental, historic preservation, public use, or trail use/rail-banking conditions in a later decision.
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