O’Brien Steel’s letter to the Surface Transportation Board (STB) regarding the service they received from Pioneer Railcorp several years ago has the two businesses sparring again. Pioneer fired off a response claiming O’Brien was acting as the City’s lackey because they want the City’s help for their expansion plans:

I [J. Michael Carr, President of Pioneer Industrial Railway Co.] am also informed and believe that O’Brien’s letter to the Board was prompted by a desire to get common carrier service ended on the Kellar Branch, so that they can expand their operation over several blocks near the Kellar Branch, and turn the Kellar Branch tracks into a private in-plant rail line. O’Brien likely filed the letter at the behest of the City of Peoria, in order to curry favor with the City, from which they are seeking assistance for said project.

O’Brien quickly countered, stating in a letter submitted yesterday:

Admittedly, O’Brien Steel is a growing business and has hopes of expansion plans in the immediate area of our facility consistent with our previous growth. However, all future expansion plans at the existing location will be limited by public infrastructure including the Kellar Branch, a Greater Peoria Sanitary District (GPSD) sanitary sewer easement, an Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) highway, a P&PU line and City of Peoria streets and
alleys. Effectively, O’Brien Steel is landlocked. There are no current or contemplated expansion plans that have included making the Kellar Branch a “private in-plant rail line.” If the Kellar Branch were to be vacated as suggested by Mr. Carr, the expansion he implies could still not be implemented without a concomitant vacating of the street that serves the Detweiller Marina by the City of Peoria and a 39″ sewer trunk line by the Greater Peoria Sanitary District. I have confidence you would be able confirm that neither of those vacations will ever occur.

However, they did admit that the City reviewed their letter before they sent it to the STB:

Although the letter was reviewed by City of Peoria Corporation Counsel prior to submission directly to the STB, the contents were drafted without input from or modification by the City of Peoria or its counsel.

That would indicate to me that they wanted to make sure the letter didn’t have anything in it that would hurt the City’s case before the STB. Since it passed the test, so to speak, there were no modifications or input necessary.

Pioneer and O’Brien did confirm that the contention between them was largely due to demurrage (a charge payable to the owner of a railcar due to failure to unload the car within the time agreed) — or, as O’Brien Steel put it, Pioneer’s “aggressive issuance of demurrage charges” — that accrued “due to O’Brien being unable to unload cars due to their plant tracks being blocked,” according to Pioneer.

All of this is diversionary, however. O’Brien’s purpose in writing their original letter (ostensibly) was simply to indicate to the STB that they didn’t want Pioneer providing common carrier service to their plant. No problem! Pioneer isn’t asking to provide service to O’Brien Steel, only Carver Lumber. There’s nothing saying Central Illinois Railroad (CIRY) couldn’t continue to service O’Brien while Pioneer services Carver Lumber at the other end of the line. So, the whole issue is a red herring.