Agenda - Council - 10/22/1979 - Laserfiche WebLink

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OF TP, Ix~ Minnesota Department of Transportation Transportation Building St. Paul, Minnesota 55155 August, 1979 Phone 612/296-8628 TO: Government Officials and Interested Persons On November 1, 1976, the Interstate Commerce Commission, the federal agency which possesses the authority to grant or deny rail abandonment requests, issued new regulations governing the abandonment of rail services. The regulationJ require that each year the nation's railroads file a map of their rail system which specifically designates those lines which may be pending or prospective abandonments. By July, 1979, each major (Class I) railroad in the State of Minnesota had published a rail system diagram map which identified the likelihood of abandonment of each of their rail lines. The Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT), being designated as the state agency responsible for submitting written comments and position statements to the Interstate Commerce Commission on all proposed rail aban-- donments in the state, has compiled the individual system diagram maps of each of the Class I Railroads in Minnesota into a composite map of total proposed rail abandonments in the state. A copy of this color coded com- posite map is attached, along with a listing of rail lines.proposed for abandonment, a summary Of rail lines in the state which have been abandoned since 1967, and a map'illustrating the location of these abandoned lines. Lines identified on the color coded system diagram map should not be equated with the actual filing of an application for.abandonment. In order to abandon a rail line~ the railroads are required to prepare an ~pplication for each line and file it with the Commission, the Governor, the appropri-. ate state agency (Mn/DOT) and significant users along each line. Upon re- ceipt of this application, Mn/DOT will act to inform government officials and shippers of the pending abandonment. Representatives from Mn/DOT will meet with individuals from the affected communities to inform them of the abandonment process and to obtain information from them on their use of the rail line. Information gained from these m~etings will be used by Mn/DOT personnel in analyzing the Department's position on the abandonment and will be included in Mn/DOT's Written Comments to the Interstate Commerce Commission on the proposed abandonment. An Equal Opportunity Employer (QVER)