STB Holds That Town Can’t Thwart Development of Rail Facilities
Gentry Locke is pleased to have represented Grafton & Upton Railroad and obtained a favorable decision from the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to permit construction of GURR’s rail transloading facility to move forward to support rail customer needs in New England. Our team included John Scheib and Emily Mordecai. The case is Grafton & Upton Railroad Company – Petition for Declaratory Order, Finance Docket 36696 (STB served Nov. 15, 2023).
In a 12-page opinion, the STB found that because “the Town’s attempted taking would foreclose GURR’s development of the property for rail ‘transportation’ purposes, it is preempted.” The STB further found that the enforcement order issued by the Town’s Conservation Commission, “which seeks to impose environmental permitting requirements on the construction of GURR’s facilities, is preempted.”
