B.C.D. 02-73

EMPLOYER STATUS DETERMINATION 0CT 3 0 2002

Tioga Central Railroad Company, Inc. (TIOC) (B.A. No. 3271)

Tioga Central Railroad, Inc. (TCRI)

This is a determination ofthe Railroad Retirement Board concerning the status of

Tioga Central Railroad Company, Inc. (TIOC) and Tioga Central Railroad, Inc.

(TCRI) as employers 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 TIOC and TCRI was furnished by Mr. Richard L. Stoving, 

President ofTCRI. According to Mr. Stoving, TIOC, a New York State

corporation, was merged into TCRI, a Pennsylvania corporation effective by

Articles of Merger dated July 2, 1999. Mr. Stoving stated that as TCRI, the

company continues to operate solely as a tourist passenger excursion train. Mr.

Stoving stated that the principal shareholders of TCRI are himself, Mr. David S.

Dropkin of Wellsboro, PA, Mr. Roger A. Smith of Edwell, PA, and Mr. Gerald R.

Bertoldo ofAttica, NY. Mr. Stoving reported that TCRI began operations on July 

2, 1999 and currently has no employees. Mr. Stoving stated that TCRI “relies 

wholly on volunteer effort to maintain and operate its equipment.” According to

Mr. Stoving, TCRI owns no trackage but has trackage rights over the Wellsboro

and Coming Railroad (WCRR) (B.A. No. 2256).

According to its passenger brochure/schedule, TCRI operates from the Wellsboro

Junction Passenger Station “a twenty-four-mile round trip to the north end of

Hammond Lake on a railroad that was built in 1872 to carry coal out of Antrim, 

Pennsylvania.” The passenger schedule refers to TCRI as “Pennsylvania’s Most 

Scenic Excursion Railroad.” According to the passenger brochure, TCRI operates 

between mileposts 106 and 94 from Wellsboro, Pennsylvania to about three miles 

south ofComing, New York . The passenger schedule indicated that TCRI

operates Saturdays and Sundays May 11 thru October 20, and “occasionally on

weekdays.” TCRI also operates “special trains” for “Wellsboro Rail Days” and

“Wellsboro’s Dickens of A Christmas.” The passenger brochure indicates that

regular freight service on the line is maintained by WCRR.

Section 1(a)(1) ofthe Railroad Retirement Act (45 U.S.C. §231(a)(1)), insofar as 

relevant here, defines a covered employer as:

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Tioga Central Railroad Company (TIOC) and

Tioga Central Railroad, Inc. (TCRI)

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

Surface Transportation Board under part A ofsubtitle IV of Title 49,

United States Code.

Section 1 ofthe RUIA contains the same definition.

Section 202.12(a) ofthe Board’s regulations provides in pertinent part that

“The actual date of cessation of employer status shall be the date upon which

final or complete cessation of an essential employer characteristic occurs."

Section 202.12(a) then sets out examples ofthe type of evidence that the

Board will consider in determining the actual date of cessation of employer

status. In this case, TCRI reportedly stopped operating in the state ofNew

York in 1992, but retained most ofits equipment and moved it to

Pennsylvania in 1993. The tourist operation began in May 1994. It is the

opinion ofthe Board, based upon available evidence, that the date ofTIOC's

merger into Tioga Central Railroad, Inc., July 2, 1999, so that TIOC no

longer existed as a separate entity, marks the actual date on which TIOC lost

a characteristic which made it impossible for TIOC to continue as a covered

employer under the RRA and the RUIA. The Board, therefore, finds that

with the close ofbusiness on July 2, 1999, the last date that it compensated

employees, the Tioga Central Railroad Company ceased being a covered

employer under the Railroad Retirement Act and the Railroad Unemployment

Insurance Act.

Regarding TCRI, the information summarized above indicates that TCRI is a

carrier by rail since it operates a passenger railway. However, TCRI does not 

operate, and has never operated, as a common rail carrier in interstate commerce.

Rather, it provides excursion service solely within the State of Pennsylvania.

Thus, it is not within the jurisdiction ofthe Surface Transportation Board (STB).

See, 49 U.S.C. §10501(a)(2)(A) (the STB has jurisdiction over rail carrier

transportation in the United States between a place in a State and a place in the

same or another State as part ofthe interstate rail network).
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Tioga Central Railroad Company (TIOC) and

Tioga Central Railroad, Inc. (TCRI)

Therefore, the Board finds that since Tioga Central Railroad, Inc. does not perform

service as a rail common carrier in interstate commerce, it is not an employer under

the Railroad Retirement and Railroad Unemployment Insurance Acts.

Original signed by:

Cherry1 T. Thomas

V. M. Speakman, Jr.

Jerome F. Kever