LEWISBURG – The Pennsylvania Supreme Court says the battle for who gets to operate five shortline railroads in the Central Pennsylvania region should to a western PA company…but SEDA-COG says there won’t be a change in operator immediately.
In a release, SEDA-COG Joint Rail Authority says the state Supreme Court ruled the authority’s July 2015 7-3 vote awarding Carload Express a seven-year, multi-million dollar contract was a passing vote. The court says that effectively awards the rail lines to the Allegheny County company.
But the authority says counterclaims regarding the conduct of certain former board members are still in Clinton County Court so they hope to resolve these issues before turning over rail lines to a new operator.
At the time of the 2015 vote, six board members abstained to avoid any appearance of bias, but those authority members were still physically present in the meeting. The contract was not awarded to Carload at the time because of the ongoing dispute about how many votes are needed to constitute a quorum on the authority.
The authority says customers should remain assured uninterrupted rail service shall continue.
