State of Maine v. AAR

You just knew it was inevitable.  Frustrated by a “lack of support” from the Association of American Railroads (AAR), the State of Maine has filed eighteen applications and a waiver request seeking authority to operate trunked land mobile facilities on VHF channels which are exclusively coordinated by the AAR, but not exclusively allocated for use by railroads. In its request, Maine reports that in response to repeated requests for concurrence, AAR indicated that it would oppose any request to coordinate these frequencies for public safety use. Maine has countered that AAR’s rejection of its request for concurrence is “grossly inadequate”, and alleges that the AAR made no effort to coordinate Maine’s applications or to verify the interference potential of Maine’s proposed use of railroad channels. Maine also notes that the state has very limited railroad service within its borders and none of the Class I railroads operate track (or are building any for that matter) within the State.

In its request for comment, the FCC posed some very specific questions about the future of railroad operations within the State of Maine and even asked whether the State of Maine would be able to operate its channels on a shared basis. One may assume that this question is a not so indirect query to both AAR and the State, since neither appears willing to share at all at this point.  If the State believes the prospects for future railroad operations are non-existent, then perhaps they should agree to share with a party that may never show up. They lose nothing. This matter has EWA’s attention for a number of reasons, and EWA will be filing comments on February 13.  Public Notice