§10704 Authority and Criteria: Rates, Classifications, Rules, and Practices Prescribed by Board

Summary

The Board can hold a full hearing and, if it finds a railroad’s rate, classification, rule, or practice breaks this law, it can set the maximum rate and order the railroad to stop the unlawful practice and follow what the Board sets. The Board must keep and update rules for how much revenue railroads need so they can pay operating costs (including depreciation), invest in and maintain the tracks and equipment, and earn a reasonable profit. Those revenue rules must let railroads cover repairs and upgrades, repay debt, raise new investment, handle inflation, and attract enough capital. The Board will check every year which railroads are earning enough. The Board can only start an action when someone files a complaint under section 11701, and it may continue a pending complaint. For rate challenges, the Board must decide within 9 months after the administrative record closes if the case uses a stand-alone cost approach, or within 6 months if it uses the Board’s method under section 10701(d)(3). The Board must keep fast procedures to avoid delay, with steps to limit long discovery, punish delay, and speed up motions and interim appeals. In stand-alone cost cases, discovery must finish within 150 days after the challenge starts; the evidentiary record must be complete within 155 days after discovery ends; the closing brief is due within 60 days after the record is complete; and the final decision must issue within 180 days after the record is complete. The Board may extend these deadlines if a party asks or for due process.