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    Transportation (Railroad)

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  • Representation for entities using rail customers, rail yards, railroad workers, railroads.

 

  • Negotiating and drafting various agreements, contracts, documents and templates related directly to railroad transportation practice, such as for: bill of sale; dispatching services; engine construction; engine control module (ECM) data; engine maintenance; engine repair; Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Build Grant with terms and conditions; full funding grant (FFGA); industrial track lease; interlocal funding; interlocal governance; interlocal operating; joint use; master project; natural gas liquids transportation; orientation services; operating; operating and management; private crossing; positive train control (PTC); private sidetrack; rail facility lease; rail freight service operating memorandum of understanding (MOU); rail freight transportation; railcar lease; railcar storage; right-of-way operating agreement; sale and purchase; transition; transloading facility lease; transportation easement.

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  • Compliance with domestic Federal and state, and international, administrative agencies, frameworks, guidelines, laws, recommendations, regulations, rules and statutes, related to railroad transportation practice, such as the: 49 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Parts 1090-1099 – Intermodal Transportation; American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO); American Trucking Association (ATA); Association of American Railroads (AAR); Carriage of Goods by Sea Act (COGSA); Carmack Amendment; Congressional Budget Office (CBO); Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT); Defense Base Act (DBA); European Union (EU) Combined Transport Directive (92/106/EEC) of 7 December 1992 on the establishment of common rules for certain types of combined transport of goods between Member States; Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA); Federal Maritime Commission (FMC); Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA); Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSR); Federal Rail Safety Act (FRSA); Federal Railroad Administration (FRA); Federal Trade Commission (FTC); Federal Transit Administration (FTA); Hazardous Materials Transportation Act (HMTA); Intermodal Association of North America (IANA); International Organization for Standardization (ISO); Intermodal Safe Container Transportation Act (ISCTA); Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA); Intermodal Transportation Advisory Board (ITAB); International Fuel Tax Association (IFTA); International Registration Plan (IRP); Locomotive Inspection Act (LIA); Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act (LHWCA); National Industrial Transportation League (NITL); National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB); Noise Control Act (NCA); Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD); Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU); Surface Transportation Board (STB); Signal Inspection Act (SIA); Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21); Transportation Infrastructure Financing Innovations Act (TIFIA); Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA); Transportation Research Board (TRB); Transportation Security Administration (TSA); Uniform Commercial Code (UCC); Uniform Intermodal Interchange & Facilities Access Agreement (UIIA); US Coast Guard (USCG); US Department of Transportation (DOT); War Hazards Compensation Act (WHCA).

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  • Legal support for the basic types of railroad shipping contracts, such as: carload (generally for lesser distances, from one railroad terminal to another); and, intermodal (which includes both railroad transportation and at least one other type of transportation, such as aviation, maritime or trucking, and generally occurs for shipments of extended distances).

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  • Any shipping agreement that includes any element of transportation by rail should, at a minimum, include: a reasonably-detailed itemization of the individual items in the shipment; who bears risk of loss (ROL) on every segment of the trip; limitation of liability (LOL) on every segment of the trip; over-dimension surcharge; required insurance for both parties from origin point to destination point, and at all points in-between; standard terms and conditions (Ts & Cs – such as: altered movement of tendered shipment; assignment; choice of law; combination rate charges; contact information for each party; domestic storage; flip charges; ; hazardous materials – hazmat – surcharge; indemnification; intermodal container transfer facility – ICTF – gate fee;international storage; payment; mis-describing penalties – such as, for example: for specifying the incorrect weight of the container or shipment; mis-describing the contents of a container or shipment, or describing a domestic shipment as an international shipment, or describing a hazmat shipment as freight of all kinds – FAK; schedule of milestone dates; venue; violations of metal products conditions; violation of prohibited articles regulations; violations of restricted articles prohibitions; use of rail carrier’s US Customs bond; and the like); the various duties of the rail carrier on every segment of the trip (such as: what mode of motor transport – such as container carrier or tractor-trailer truck – should be engaged to get the shipment from the location point to the train loading point; who is responsible for unloading the shipment from the mode of transport onto the train well car (if a container) or rail car – whether the shipment is contained in containers or must unloaded and loaded onto the train as various individual items by hand; coupling or uncoupling of particular rail cars during transit; unloading/reloading/unloading of various containers or rail cars during transit; unloading at the final rail terminus point; what mode of motor transport – such as container carrier or tractor-trailer truck – should be engaged to get the shipment from the final rail terminus point to the final destination point; who unloads the container or shipment at the final destination point).

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  • The advantages of rail transportation include: depending on the age and sophistication of the particular railroad carrier’s infrastructure, the railroad carrier may be able to track the shipment exactly through the use of tracking sensors in the right-of-way, alongside the track, or at least through the use of drones; environmental sustainability (an average train uses only about one gallon of fuel to haul one ton of freight 479 miles – 479MPG/ton) and may achieve SmartWay status (meaning the carrier achieves or exceeds certain standards) from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); hauling heavy and voluminous freight very long distances more efficiently (in terms of fuel consumption and time) than by airplane, ship or truck (statistics have indicated that the efficiency of an intermodal or multimodal trip increase as the railroad portion exceeds 400 miles); increased shipment security; reduced carbon footprint and highway congestion (reduces the number of trucks on the road that would be required to haul the same tonnage of freight); reduced cost per ton; securing the freight in containers or railroad cars minimizes load shifting, thus reducing the possibility of claims for cargo damages during transit; use of proportionately less labor when loading or unloading freight from a train, than from a ship or truck; virtually unlimited capacity.

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  • Familiarity with the basic types of specialized rail cars use to transport either containers or trailers, such as the: container on flat car (COFC – a/k/a well car or wellcar, allows for double-stacking of containers); and, trailer on flat car (TOFC).

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  • Familiarity with the original Interstate Commerce Commission railroad classifications; Class 1 (only the few largest railroads, a/k/a “nationals”, each with extensive lengths of track in the US – as well as in Canada for the two Canadian railroads, regulated by the US Surface Transportation Board – STB – and each having annual revenues of at least $447,621,226: Amtrak; Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation – BNSF; Canadian National Railway – CNR; Canadian Pacific Railway – CPR; Chessie Seaboard Transportation – CSX; Kansas City Southern Railway; Norfolk Southern Railway; Union Pacific Railroad); Class 2 (numerous mid-sized railroads, a/k/a “regionals”, serving regional markets, each with revenues of from $35,809,698 up to $447,621,225); and, Class 3 railroads (the smallest railroads, a/k/a “locals”, each with only small lengths of track, serving small local markets, and each with revenues of up to $35,809,697).

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    PROGRESS DRAFT - Last uddated 210521_1632

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