Session Laws

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

SECTION 1. Subsection (A) of section 29 of chapter 28 of the acts of 1996 is hereby amended by striking out the definition of "Reimbursement container" and inserting in place thereof the following definition:-

"Reimbursement container", a container transported by a double stack track over a fully funded line subject to a reimbursement charge pursuant to the provisions of subsection (G).

SECTION 2. Said section 29 of said chapter 28 is hereby further amended by striking out subsection (G) and inserting in place thereof the following subsection:-

(G) To accomplish the objectives of public investment in fully funded lines, the secretary shall require payment by a participating railroad of a reimbursement charge. Such reimbursement charge shall apply to intermodal containers, loaded or empty, carried by the participating railroads and meeting all of the following criteria:

(i) transported by a double stack train over all or a portion of a fully funded line, whether or not such containers are actually double stacked;

(ii) handled for the account of either (a) a steamship line or (b) a steamship line's agents or subsidiaries moving in equipment of a type accepted by the steamship line for movement in its ocean vessel; and

(iii) with no immediately prior or subsequent movement via a maritime port facility located in the commonwealth.

The reimbursement charge shall be adjusted annually by increases or decreases in the United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index for all urban consumers and shall apply to all containers meeting the criteria set forth in this subsection whether or not such containers are actually double stacked.

Reimbursement charges shall be paid by the railroad handling reimbursement containers and shall be in effect for a period of fifteen years from the date of completion of vertical clearance improvement on the particular route, segment or line or until fifty percent of the commonwealth's investment in fully funded lines has been recovered by the payment of reimbursement charges by the appropriate participating railroad; provided, however, that reimbursement charges shall not be charged to a railroad for that number of container movements, loaded or empty, to Beacon Park or Fort Devens, as the case may be, equal to the number of such containers handled by such railroad in nineteen hundred and ninety-three, plus five percent, that would have been subjected to the reimbursement charge had they moved in a double stack train. This number shall be adjusted annually by an appropriate index reflecting economic growth in New England and as set forth in the master agreement.