Collapse to view only § 741. Formation and structure
- § 741. Formation and structure
- § 742. Powers and duties of Corporation
- § 743. Valuation and conveyance of rail properties
- § 744. Termination and continuation of rail services
- § 744a. End of Conrail commuter service obligation
- § 745. Continuing reorganization; supplemental transactions
- § 746. Certificates of value
- § 747. Protection of Federal funds
- § 748. Abandonments
There shall be established within 300 days after January 2, 1974, in accordance with the provisions of this section, a corporation to be known as the Consolidated Rail Corporation or such other corporate name as may be duly adopted by the Corporation.
The Corporation shall be a for-profit corporation established under the laws of a State and shall not be an agency or instrumentality of the Federal Government. The Corporation shall be deemed a rail carrier subject to part A of subtitle IV of title 49, shall be subject to the provisions of this Act and, to the extent not inconsistent with such Act and subtitle IV of title 49, shall be subject to applicable State law. The principal office of the Corporation or of its principal railroad operating subsidiary shall be located in Philadelphia in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
The officers of the Corporation shall include a chief executive officer and a chief operating officer, who shall be appointed by the Board of Directors and who shall serve at the pleasure of the Board; and such other officers as shall be provided for in the bylaws of the Corporation.
For and during the period between the deposit of securities of the Corporation with the special court, in accordance with section 743(a) of this title, and the distribution of such securities, in accordance with section 743(c) of this title, the special court shall, within 30 days after the date of conveyance pursuant to section 743(b)(1) of this title, appoint one or more voting trustees for each class of securities which is so deposited. Such voting trustees shall, on behalf of the distributees, exercise the rights of the holders of such securities as their interests may appear. Within 30 days after such appointment, such voting trustees shall select members of the Board of Directors of the Corporation on behalf of the holders of the class of securities whose rights they exercise pursuant to this subsection.
The Corporation shall transmit to the Congress and the President, not later than 90 days after the end of each fiscal year, a comprehensive and detailed report on all activities and accomplishments of the Corporation during the preceding fiscal year.
No director of the Corporation shall be liable, for money damages or otherwise, to any party by reason of the fact that such person is or was a director, if, with respect to the subject matter of the action, suit, or proceeding, such person was fulfilling a duty which he in good faith reasonably believed to be required by law or vested in him in his capacity as a director of the Association or as an officer of the United States. The United States shall indemnify such person against all judgments, amounts paid in settlement, and costs and expenses (including fees of accountants, experts, and attorneys), actually and reasonably incurred in connection with any such action, suit, or proceeding in which such person is determined to have met such standard of conduct. This subsection shall not be construed to grant any immunity from any criminal law of the United States.
If, within two years after August 13, 1981, the Corporation applies for the permission of the Secretary to substitute manual block signal systems for automatic block signal systems on lines on which less than 20,000,000 gross tons of freight are carried annually, the Secretary shall approve or disapprove such application within 90 days of its submission.
An order or judgment entered by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia pursuant to subsection (c) of this section or section 746 of this title shall be reviewable in accordance with sections 1291, 1292, and 1294 of title 28.
All transfers or conveyances of rail properties (whether real, personal, or mixed) which are made under this chapter (including transfers and conveyances which are made in accordance with a supplemental transaction pursuant to section 745 of this title or which are made at any time to carry out the purposes of section 791(d) of this title) shall be exempt from any taxes, imposts, or levies now or hereafter imposed, by the United States or by any State or any political subdivision of a State, on or in connection with such transfers or conveyances or on the recording of deeds, bills of sale, liens, encumbrances, or other instruments evidencing, effectuating, or incident to any such transfers or conveyances, whether imposed on the transferor or on the transferee. Such transferors and transferees shall be entitled to record any such deeds, bills of sale, liens, encumbrances, or other instruments and, consistent with the designations and applicable principles in the final system plan, to record the release or removal of any pre-existing liens or encumbrances of record with respect to properties so transferred or conveyed, upon payment of any appropriate and generally applicable charges to compensate for the cost of the service performed.
If an offer to purchase is made under subsection (c)(2)(C) of this section, such offer shall be accompanied by an offer of a rail service continuation payment. Such payment shall continue until the purchase transaction is completed, unless a railroad assumes operations over such rail properties of its own account pursuant to an order or authorization of the Commission. Whenever a railroad in reorganization in the region or a profitable railroad gives notice of intent to discontinue service pursuant to subsection (a) of this section, such railroad shall, upon the request of anyone apparently qualified to make an offer to purchase or to provide a rail service continuation payment, promptly make available its most recent reports on the physical condition of such property, together with such traffic and revenue data as would be required under subpart B of part 1121 of chapter X of title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations and such other data as are necessary to ascertain the avoidable costs of providing service over such rail properties.
After the rail system to be operated by the Corporation or a subsidiary thereof under the final system plan has been in operation for 2 years, the Commission may authorize the Corporation or a subsidiary thereof to abandon any rail properties as to which it determines that rail service over such properties is not required by the public convenience and necessity, if the Corporation or a subsidiary thereof can demonstrate that no State (or local or regional transportation authority) is willing to offer a rail service continuation payment pursuant to subsection (c) of this section. The Commission may, at any time after the effective date of the final system plan, authorize additional rail service in the region or authorize the abandonment of rail properties which are not being operated by the Corporation or any subsidiary or affiliate thereof or by any other person. Determinations by the Commission under this subsection shall be made pursuant to applicable provisions of part A of subtitle IV of title 49.
After February 5, 1976, and prior to the date of conveyance (pursuant to section 743(b)(1) of this title), no railroad in reorganization in the region may discontinue service or abandon any line of railroad other than in accordance with the provisions of this chapter, unless (1) it is authorized to do so by the Association, and (2) no affected State (or local or regional transportation authority) reasonably opposes such action, notwithstanding any provision of any other Federal law, the constitution or law of any State, or the decision or order of, or the pendency of any proceeding before any Federal or State court, agency, or authority.
Notwithstanding any other provision of law or contract, Conrail shall be relieved of any legal obligation to operate commuter service on January 1, 1983.
If the Secretary or the Association determines that, as part of continuing reorganization, further restructuring of rail properties in the region through transactions supplemental to the final system plan would promote the establishment and retention of a financially self-sustaining rail service system in the region adequate to meet the needs of the region, the Secretary or the Association, as the case may be, may develop proposals for such supplemental transactions as are necessary or appropriate to implement the needed restructuring. Transfers of rail properties included in proposals developed by the Association shall be limited to (1) rail properties which would have qualified for designation under section 716(c)(1)(A) of this title but which were not transferred or conveyed under the final system plan, and which the Association finds to be essential to the efficient operations of the Corporation, and (2) transfers, consistent with the final system plan, of rail properties from the Corporation to a subsidiary thereof. Each proposal (other than a proposal developed by the Association) shall be submitted in writing to the Association and shall state and describe any transactions proposed, the rail properties involved, the parties to such transactions, the financial and other terms of such transactions, the purposes of the chapter or the goals of the final system plan intended to be effectuated by such transactions, and such other information incidental thereto as the Association may prescribe. Within 10 days after receipt of a proposal developed by the Secretary, and upon the development of a proposal developed by the Association, the Association shall publish a summary of such proposal in the Federal Register, and shall afford interested persons (including the Corporation when property is to be transferred to or from the Corporation) an opportunity to comment thereon.
The Association shall analyze each proposal containing one or more supplemental transactions, taking into account the comments of interested persons and statements and exhibits submitted at any public hearings which may have been held. The Association shall, within 120 days after the publication of a summary thereof under subsection (a) of this section, publish in the Federal Register a report evaluating such proposal. Such evaluation shall state whether the supplemental transactions contained in such proposal, considered in their entirety, are (1) in the public interest and consistent with the purposes of this chapter and the goals of the final system plan, and (2) fair and equitable. If the Corporation opposes, or seeks modification of, any such proposed transfer, its written comments shall be given due consideration by the Association and shall be published as part of the evaluation. Within 30 days after the Association publishes its report, each proposed transferor or transferee shall notify the Association in writing as to whether any proposed supplemental transaction requiring the transfer of any property from or to such transferor or transferee is acceptable to such proposed transferor or transferee. If any such proposed transferor (other than the Corporation) or transferee fails to notify the Association that any proposed supplemental transaction requiring the transfer of any property from such transferor or to such transferee is acceptable to it, no further administrative or judicial proceedings shall be conducted with respect to such proposed supplemental transaction.
Within 90 days after the publication in the Federal Register of each report referred to in subsection (b) of this section, the Commission shall determine whether the supplemental transactions referred to in the report, considered in their entirety, would be in the public interest and consistent with the purposes of this chapter and the goals of the final system plan. In making such determination, the Commission shall give due consideration to the views received by it, within 30 days after the publication of the applicable report, from the Corporation and the Secretary. The Commission may condition its approval of such supplemental transactions on such reasonable terms and conditions as it may deem necessary in the public interest. The approval by the Commission of such supplemental transactions shall not be a prerequisite to the consummation of such transactions, but any determination of the Commission modifying, approving, or disapproving any proposed supplemental transactions shall be given due weight and consideration by the special court in the proceedings prescribed in subsection (d) of this section. If the Commission fails to act within the time period provided in this subsection, the supplemental transactions involved shall be deemed to have been approved by the Commission. The Commission may prescribe such regulations as may be necessary for the administration of this section.
On the date when the Corporation is required to deposit securities with the special court pursuant to section 743(a)(1) of this title, the Association shall deposit with the special court the certificates of value of the Association required by this section. The Secretary shall guarantee the payment of all certificates of value delivered in accordance with this subchapter. All guarantees entered by the Secretary under this section shall constitute general obligations of the United States of America for the payment or redemption of which its full faith and credit are pledged. Such guarantees shall be valid and incontestable except as to mutual mistake of fact or as to fraud or material misrepresentation by the holder of such certificates or the transferor of rail properties to which certificates of value of any series so guaranteed are issued.
A separate series of certificates of value shall be issued to each railroad in reorganization in the region and each person leased, operated, or controlled by such a railroad that transfers rail properties to the Corporation or a subsidiary thereof. The number of certificates of value of each series to be deposited pursuant to subsection (a) shall be equal to the number of shares of series B preferred stock of the Corporation which are required to be deposited by the Corporation with the special court, pursuant to section 743(a)(1) of this title in exchange for the rail properties transferred to the Corporation or a subsidiary thereof by such transferor. Certificates of value of the appropriate series shall be distributed by the special court, pursuant to section 743(c)(4) of this title, at the same time to the same transferors, and in the same numbers of units as shares of such series B preferred stock are distributed to such transferor.
There are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary such sums as are necessary to discharge the obligations of the United States arising under this section.
The Corporation may, in accordance with this section, file with the Commission an application for a certificate of abandonment for any line which is part of the system of the Corporation. Any such application shall be governed by this section and shall not, except as specifically provided in this section, be subject to the provisions of chapter 109 of title 49.
Any application for abandonment that is filed by the Corporation under this section before December 1, 1981, shall be granted by the Commission within 90 days after the date such application is filed unless, within such 90-day period, an offer of financial assistance is made in accordance with subsection (d) of this section with respect to the line to be abandoned.
The provisions of section 10903(b)(3) 1