The Surface Transportation Board has a message for the feuding Kellar Branch rail carriers: work out your differences or we’ll work them out for you. In a ruling released late Friday, the STB said:

[W]e direct that the parties [Pioneer Industrial Railway and Central Illinois Railroad] meet, in the presence of Board staff, to negotiate joint operating protocols for the Kellar Branch. Board staff will contact representatives of CIRY and PIRY to arrange for such a meeting, which shall take place no later than Friday, December 14, 2007, unless the parties have worked out a mutually acceptable arrangement before that time and so advise the Board.

Pioneer says it has tried to contact Central Illinois Railroad (CIRY) to work out an operating arrangement since the STB’s November decision was handed down, but none of their calls were returned. CIRY has reportedly said that they will not negotiate joint protocols until Pioneer has a contract with the city, despite the fact that CIRY itself does not have such an agreement with the City of Peoria or the Village of Peoria Heights.

The STB’s decision basically tells the two rail carriers to work things out between themselves, or else the STB will act as a mediator to ensure that both carriers have safe and equitable access to the Kellar Branch rail line by Dec. 14.