49 CFR 1151.4 – Board determination
(a) The Board shall determine whether each applicant is a financially responsible person. To be a financially responsible person, the Board must find that:
(1) The applicant is capable of paying the constitutional minimum value of the line and able to assure that adequate transportation will be provided over the line for at least 3 years;
(2) The applicant is not a class I or class II railroad or an entity affiliated with a class I or class II railroad.
(b) If the Board finds that one or more applicants are financially responsible parties, it shall determine whether the involved line or line segment is a qualified line. A line is a qualified line if:
(1) Either
(i) The public convenience and necessity require or permit the sale of line or line segment; or
(ii) The line or line segment is classified in category 1 or 2 of the owning carrier’s system diagram map; and
(2) The traffic level on the line or line segment sought to be acquired was less than 3 million gross ton-miles of traffic per mile in the preceding calendar year (Note: This finding will not be required for applications filed after October 1, 1983).
(c) If the Board finds that one or more financially responsible parties have offered to buy a qualifying line of railroad, the Board shall set the acquisition cost of the line at the higher of NLV or GCV, order the owning carrier to sell the rail line to one of the financially responsible applicants, and resolve any related issues raised in the application. If an applicant and the owning railroad agree on an acquisition price, that price shall be the final price.
(d) If trackage rights are sought in the application, the Board shall, based on the evidence of record, set the adequate compensation for such rights, if the parties have not agreed.
(e) If the applicant requests the Board to set joint rates or divisions and the line carried less than 3 million gross ton-miles of traffic per mile during the preceding calendar year, the Board shall, pursuant to 49 U.S.C. § 10705(a), establish joint rates and divisions based on the evidence of record in the proceeding. Unless specifically requested to do so by the selling carrier, the Board will not set the rate for the selling railroad’s share of the joint rate at less than the applicable level (for the year in which the acquisition is made) set by 49 U.S.C. § 10707, which limits Board maximum ratemaking jurisdiction to rates above certain cost/price ratios.