B.C.D. 01-87 DEC 2 0 2001

EMPLOYER STATUS DETERMINATION

Texas Central Business Lines Corporation

This is the determination of the Railroad Retirement Board concerning

the status of Texas Central Business Lines Corporation as an employer

under the Railroad Retirement Act (45 U.S.C. § 231 et seep) and the

Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act (45 U.S.C. § 351 et seep).

Information regarding Texas Central was provided by Jonathan

Lorman, Vice President. According to Mr. Lorman, Texas Central

began non-rail operations on or about March 1, 1999, and began rail

operations on August 1, 2001. Texas Central reports that it currently

has four employees involved in rail-related work. The company is

owned by seven individuals, David D. and Jerry Watson, Jonathan and

Virginia L. Lorman, James R. Seidel, K. K. Siedel, and Numa G. Bulot.

In Surface Transportation Board Finance Docket No. 33997, Texas

Central filed a notice of exemption to provide switching service over

approximately five miles1of yard and switching track located within the

MidTexas International Center, Inc. (Inland Port), an industrial park

located south and east of Dallas, Texas. Texas Central interchanges

with the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway and intends to

interchange with the Union Pacific Railroad. Approximately ten

percent of employee time is spent on rail-related operations. The 

balance of Texas Central’s operations include trucking and motor

vehicle management.

Section 1(a)(1) of the Railroad Retirement Act (45 U.S.C. § 231(a)(1)),

insofar as relevant here, defines a covered employer as:

(i) any carrier by railroad subject to the jurisdiction of

the Surface Transportation Board under Part A of subtitle

IV of title 49, United States Code;

Sections 1(a) and 1(b) of the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act (45

U.S.C. §§ 351(a) and (b)) contain substantially the same definition, as

1 The notice refers to “approximately 5.0 miles” oftrack; Mr. Lorman refers to “approximately 3.5 miles” oftrack.

BA# 4870
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Texas Central Business Lines Corporation

does section 3231 of the Railroad Retirement Tax Act (26 U.S.C. §

3231).

Section 202.3 of the regulations of the Board provides that:

(a) With respect to any company or person principally

engaged in business other than carrier business, but which,

in addition to such principal business, engages in some 

carrier business, the Board will require submission of

information pertaining to the history and all operations of

such company or person with a view to determining whether

some identifiable and separable enterprise conducted by the

person or company is to be considered to be the employer.

The determination will be made in the light of considerations

such as the following:

(1) The primary purpose of the company or person on and

since the date it was established;

(2) The functional dominance or subservience of its carrier

business in relation to its non-carrier business;

(3) The amount of its carrier business and the ratio of such

business to its entire business;

(4) Whether its carrier business is a separate and distinct

enterprise.

(b) In the event that the employer is found to be an aggregate of

persons or legal entities or less than the whole of a legal entity or

a person operating in only one of several capacities, then the unit

or units competent to assume legal obligations shall be responsible

for the discharge of the duties of the employer.
Texas Central Business Lines Corporation

In this case, the carrier business of Texas Central is a small proportion

of its entire enterprise, and the primary purpose of Texas Central is

non-railroad transportation business. Mr. Lorman advises that the

service of employees working on the switching operation will be

reported separately, which is sufficient to meet the requirement that

there be an identifiable separate and distinct enterprise conducting

carrier business. Texas Central as an employer covered under the Acts

is thus "less than the whole of a legal entity".

Since Texas Central is not predominantly engaged in carrier business,

and its only carrier business is the operation of the switching operation

described above, it is the determination of the Board that section 202.3

of those regulations applies so that Texas Central is a covered employer

effective August 1, 2001, only to the extent that its employees engage in

the operation of the switching operation and that only service

performed while conducting Texas Central's rail operations is creditable

under the Railroad Retirement and Unemployment Insurance Acts.

Cherry? T. Thomas

V. M. Speakman, Jr.