Something on Trainorders about a new Northern Central formed to operate abandoned trackage in southern PA and MD. Anyone know more about it?

http://www.trainorders.com/
ryarger@rypn.org

Information describing the closure of the previous Northern Central York-New Freedom, PA dinner train operation.

http://www.classicrail.com/ncry/
ryarger@rypn.org

> Something on Trainorders about a new
> Northern Central formed to operate abandoned
> trackage in southern PA and MD. Anyone know
> more about it?

Fresh news from the Surface Transportation Board website:

"James Riffin d/b/a The Northern Central Railroad (NCR), a noncarrier, has filed a verified notice of exemption under 49 CFR 1150.31 to acquire and operate approximately: (a) 20.9 miles of rail line from the Commissioners of York County, PA (Conrail's former Line Code 1224) between milepost 35.1 (at the Maryland/Pennsylvania line), and milepost 56(Grantly), in York County, PA; (b) 2.0 miles of abandoned rail line (Conrail's former Line Code 1224) between milepost 14.2 (Cockeysville) and milepost 16.2 (Ashland), in Baltimore County, MD; and (c) 0.9 miles of abandoned rail line (Conrail's former line Code 1224) between milepost 24.3 (Blue Mount) and milepost 25.2 (Blue Mount Quarry), in Baltimore County, MD.
NCR has indicated that the portions of the abandoned right-of-way it proposes to acquire and operate in (b) and (c) above have reverted back to the original owners. Therefore, NCR does not need Board authority to acquire those portions of the right-of-way; however, it does need Board authority to operate those portions of the line.

Close NCR proposes to interchange with the Genesee and Wyoming Railroad."

For those who don't know, the trackage in Pennsylvania is the part of the York County Rail Trail that the former Liberty Limited dinner-train operation (also known as Northern Central) operated over. The Baltimore County sections include the freight-only trackage connected to the northernmost end of the Baltimore Central Light Rail Line at Cockeysville/Timonium, still active to a quarry and a couple customers, and an isolated hunk of track/right-of-way between the end-of-track and the south end of the current Northern Central Rail Trail (trackless in Maryland).

People who should be "in the know" about this kind of stuff are all looking at this STB filing and basically saying "what the heck.....?" or language far stronger. Even a former NCRY car owner was bewildered. I'll check the "grapevine" today and see if I can discover anything.



STB Documents & PDF links
LNER4472-NOSPAM-@bcpl.net

I spoke with a friend at the STB today and was advised that the state of Maryland had petitioned to have the Notice of Exemption revoked because the "Northern Central" has no agreements in place, and in fact, they have never heard it.

I was also told that the Notice of Exemption does not in and of itself convey any particular rights and is only meaningful if (or when) you have all the necessary underlying agreements in place, which obviously is not the case here.

Alan Maples



AMaples@aol.com

If anyone thinks that the granting of this exemption by the STB presages a rebirth of the Northern Central as a through route, donÂ’t hold your breath.

In my professional judgement "What the...???" doesn't even come close. I have been dealing with railroad land since Penn Central and I have never seen anything quite this strange.

I suggest reading all of Mr Riffin's filings before the STB along with the responses by both Norfolk Southern and the State of Maryland's Counsel. You should read it for yourselves. I couldnÂ’t make this stuff up and it feels weird just to try to summarize it.

Incidentally Mr. Maples is quite correct. The exemption does not confer any property rights and in other decisions the STB has stated that where the property rights are in dispute that the dispute must be resolved or the exemption is moot.

This has actually been going on since last summer. The Docket numbers are FD 34373 and FD 34484.

SYNOPSIS: (2nd Round)

Riffin filed a VERIFIED NOTICE OF EXEMPTION on March 8th and followed this in short order with two amendments.
Maryland filed a PETITION TO REVOKE THE VERIFIED NOTICE OF EXEMPTION on April 2nd .

Mr. Riffin is claiming the right to operate over two discontiguous segments in Baltimore County and the portion from the MD/PA state line to Grantley where he will interchange with the G&W. The Maryland segements are 2 miles at Cockeysville and the branch to Blue Mountain Quarry. The property in Maryland is apparently to be claimed by eminent domain or agreement with the heirs of the original owners. He apparently expects to reach an agreement with Norfolk Southern on the Pennsylvania property.

Norfolk Southern stated through counsel (1st round - last summer) that they have had no discussions with Riffin and have no intention of entering into any. The State of Maryland is claiming the same through counsel and that they own the ROW. Maryland has further alleged that Mr. Riffin is using his status as a “railroad company” to evade environmental regulation in two matters that do not appear to be at all related to railroad operations and has so claimed in district court.

His business plan appears to be
1. A dinner train from Cockeysville, MD to Grantley PA in connection with a yet-to-be-built Railroad theme restaurant in Cockeysville;
2. Aggregates from Blue Mountain to Cockeysville; and,
3. “Infield Dirt” to the Port of Baltimore.

Specific claims in his reply to the StateÂ’s petition were that the State could not hire counsel to represent it before the STB, that the ROW had reverted to the original owners, that the StateÂ’s title to the ROW was defective, that under Maryland law as a railroad company he could simply condemn the land be it it public or private, and that the Baltimore light rail line is neither a public purpose or a railroad use of the property.

ANALYSIS:

He hasnÂ’t connected the dots. There are six or seven miles of track which need to be replaced between Blue Mountain and Cockeysville and nothing in the filings which indicates whether or how he is going to obtain the ROW between the two. He has the same problem between Blue Mountain and the state line. He has to condemn a state park to do that. I donÂ’t think so. He has to condemn the light rail line to get to the harbor and/or get Norfolk Southern to cooperate. I really donÂ’t think so.

Back of the envelope math says that with the businesses listed above best case scenario for repayment of capital is approximately 125 years – without finance or operating costs.

I could keep going but since nobody has hired me to figure this out I am stopping at one page. My instinct is that counsel for the state is right and that this is primarily an attempt at preempting environmental regulation.