WASHINGTON — The Surface Transportation Board has granted BNSF Railway permission to let a set of restricted trackage rights on Union Pacific lines in Northern California expire at the end of 2026, avoiding the need for a separate discontinuance filing later.
BNSF petitioned the board on Dec. 17, 2025, seeking partial revocation of the board’s trackage-rights class exemption so the rights could terminate under the expiration date BNSF and Union Pacific agreed to in their contract. The trackage rights cover two segments totaling about 187.5 miles from Stockton to Elsey, California, and from Elsey to Keddie, California, on UP’s Oakland and Canyon subdivisions.
The rights are limited to BNSF unit ballast train movements, loaded and empty, to and from a ballast pit at Elsey for maintenance-of-way projects. BNSF said the rights were filed under the board’s local trackage-rights exemption rather than the temporary trackage-rights exemption because the movements are local rather than overhead.
The board noted that trackage rights granted under the class exemption typically remain effective indefinitely, even if the parties’ agreement sets a term. In this case, however, the board said that allowing the rights to expire as agreed would reduce regulatory burdens and provide for a more expeditious resolution, while posing no market-power concerns given the rights’ limited purpose.
Under the decision, the trackage rights in Docket No. FD 36377 (Sub-No. 12) may expire at midnight on Dec. 31. The board imposed standard employee protective conditions for any workers adversely affected. The decision is effective March 27, with petitions to stay due March 9 and petitions for reconsideration due March 17.
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