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  • Pawtucket Mayor to STB: don't let Brookfield cancel Polar Express!

  • Topics relating to the operation of the P&W Railroad, which is a subsidiary of Genesee and Wyoming. Regional freight railroad based in Worcester and operating in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York.
    Official Website
Topics relating to the operation of the P&W Railroad, which is a subsidiary of Genesee and Wyoming. Regional freight railroad based in Worcester and operating in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York.
Official Website

Moderator: MEC407

 #1516917  by johnpbarlow
 
https://www.stb.gov/filings/all.nsf/ba7 ... 248305.pdf

The Blackstone Valley Tourism Council President also made a filing with the STB with the same plea:

https://www.stb.gov/filings/all.nsf/ba7 ... 248316.pdf

I'm not sure these filings deserve STB attention as its mission doesn't mention oversight of seasonal entertainment tourist excursions :
The STB serves as both an adjudicatory and a regulatory body. The agency has jurisdiction over railroad rate and service issues and rail restructuring transactions (mergers, line sales, line construction, and line abandonments); certain trucking company, moving van, and non-contiguous ocean shipping company rate matters; certain intercity passenger bus company structure, financial, and operational matters; and rates and services of certain pipelines not regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
 #1517149  by BandA
 
They are saying that they are a customer of the railroad, contracting (sponsoring) excursions using the railroad's passenger car set. The fact that it is seasonal is interesting - grain shipments are probably seasonal too, and grain cars could be owned by the railroad or by a shipping company or by a farm co-op or by the customer.

I think the letters are completely appropriate. That they are almost identical reduces their impact.

Does the railroad pay "Real Use Tax" on their rolling stock to the state or municipality? Perhaps the railroad needs a tax break on passenger equipment that is only used say 20-50 days a year, or perhaps Pawtucket needs to buy 51% ownership. They are right to be worried that a foreign money-management company isn't going to care about some niche market or about local goodwill or publicity, they are going to try to sell anything that is underutilized or unprofitable.
 #1519294  by johnpbarlow
 
BROOKFIELD ASSET MANAGEMENT, INC. AND DJP XX, LLC reply at the STB to 15 comments re: the proposed acquisition of G&W with special focus on P&W. Net: Brookfield mgmt will continue to discuss the Blackstone Valley groups' concerns re: seasonal excursions and continued development of the Blackstone Valley Greenway trail as did G&W management. Excerpt:
As noted above, 13 of the 15 comments submitted in this proceeding relate to the
P&W, a Class III railroad that GWI acquired in 2016 and one of the 106 GWI Railroads
that Applicants seek to control through this proceeding.2 See Genesee & Wyoming Inc.—
Acquisition of Control Exemption—Providence & Worcester R.R. Co., FD 36064 (STB served
Dec. 16, 2016) (“GWI-P&W”). Importantly, none of these comments suggests that the Board
should not allow the Proposed Transaction to proceed or that the Section 1180.2(d)(2) class
exemption is not appropriate for the Proposed Transaction. Applicants understand that,
since GWI has owned P&W, GWI and P&W have continued to work with these communities
to address their concerns. Applicants intend to continue this approach once Applicants
obtain control of GWI and P&W.
https://www.stb.gov/filings/all.nsf/ba7 ... 248436.pdf