Sidley is a leader in helping clients navigate the complex regulatory landscape governing the rail industry. We regularly represent clients in proceedings before federal regulators such as the Surface Transportation Board (STB), the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and other units of the Department of Transportation (DOT), including rulemakings, complaint proceedings, transactions, environmental and safety matters and requests for approval or authorization. Our team includes the former general counsel of the STB, the former Director of the STB’s Office of Proceedings, and other lawyers with substantial experience representing clients before federal agencies.
We regularly advise railroads and investors in the rail industry on governing regulations and issues relating to implementation and compliance, including licensing issues, safety regulations, common carrier obligation, and federal preemption issues.
We have an extensive practice before the STB, the primary economic regulator of the rail industry. Our lawyers have represented clients in a variety of STB proceedings, including transactions, rate reasonableness cases, unreasonable practice cases, service complaints, challenges to railroad tariffs, abandonments and discontinuances of rail lines, preemption disputes, rulemakings and public hearings.
Our team represents clients before units of the DOT, including the FRA and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. Our DOT representations have included rulemaking proceedings, Positive Train Control compliance, safety violations, Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) loan requests and environmental review.
Our team also advises clients with regard to investigations and recommendations issued by the National Transportation Safety Board.
We also have significant experience representing railroads in high-stakes appeals on a wide range of issues. These cases combine our transportation practice’s deep subject-matter knowledge with our appellate group’s elite written and oral advocacy. In recent years, we have represented transportation-industry clients in state appellate courts, federal courts of appeals, and the U.S. Supreme Court. These appeals have addressed many topics, including administrative-law challenges to federal agency action, federal preemption of state regulation on a variety of subjects, federal preemption of state common law, and Federal Employers’ Liability Act (FELA) claims, including preclusion by other federal statutory regimes.