Opinion ID: 413436
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: future traffic

Text: 50 In Illinois v. United States we faulted the ICC's conclusion that the prospects for future traffic increases on the line were speculative because, we said, the Commission had not considered some evidence. 666 F.2d at 1079. Similarly, petitioners object to the Commission's holding in its most recent decision that traffic increases have not been substantial and that proposed future increases would produce insufficient revenues to cover the costs of operation. They claim that the Commission failed to explain why it concluded that the traffic had slight growth potential. 51 We hold that the Commission's discussion of the future traffic potential of the Flora line was sufficient and responsive to our concerns in Illinois. The first concern we had there was that the Commission had not considered the impact on the traffic figures of a 1977 strike by the largest shipper on the line. The Commission eliminated that problem in its 1982 decision, however, by disregarding the evidence for that year. Our second concern was the claim that the railroad had failed to provide enough freight cars to permit additional shipments of grain. The reason for this, however, was a nationwide grain car shortage and not an intent to keep traffic figures low. One of petitioners' own witnesses testified that he knew of no railroad that could meet all grain car orders. 52 The third concern we had was that the Commission did not consider petitioners' claim that the abandonment application caused some shippers to shift to other means of transportation. Petitioners assert in this petition that the filing of the abandonment petition as a matter of common sense deterred shippers from planning increases in shipping. This is purely speculative. Petitioners do not suggest how this effect could be measured or, if it exists, how it could be compensated for in determining traffic potential. We also hold that petitioners did not establish in the remanded proceeding that traffic was lost as a result of the pending application. We cannot accept their claim that they have established that there was a loss in the absence of any evidence; thus, we cannot find fault with the Commission's holding. 53 The fourth factor was the claim that the traffic on the line was growing. It is this claim that petitioners press most strongly in this petition. They allege that there was testimony that the traffic in 1980-1981 was the heaviest in years and that several shippers were increasing their loads. 54 Petitioners claim that the largest shipper on the line presented evidence that its carloadings for the first four months of 1981 had increased seventy percent over the entire carloadings for 1980. We find no evidence in the record to substantiate this claim. Similarly, the claim that 707 carloads for the first three-and-a-half months of 1981 represented the best in recent years is unfounded; if that rate continued throughout 1981, the number of carloads for the year would be no greater than the number of carloads in other recent years. 55 In addition, petitioners claim that it was arbitrary for the Commission to have considered only the proposed increases of traffic by two shippers. We find no error. Petitioners failed to show that any other shippers were proposing any substantial increases in service. The Commission need not have discussed the plans of every shipper on the line, but rather could focus its attention on the ones proposing the largest increases. As we have said before, [t]he ICC [is] not required to discuss each factual point brought out by the petitioners. International Minerals, 656 F.2d at 260.