State ex rel. Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad v. Public Service Commission of State

335 S.W.2d 182, 1960 Mo. LEXIS 766
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedApril 11, 1960
DocketNo. 47574
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 335 S.W.2d 182 (State ex rel. Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad v. Public Service Commission of State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad v. Public Service Commission of State, 335 S.W.2d 182, 1960 Mo. LEXIS 766 (Mo. 1960).

Opinion

EAGER, Judge.

This is a second appeal in proceedings in which the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Company (which we shall usually refer to as “the company”) applied to the Public Service Commission for authority to discontinue local passenger trains 23 and 24 operating between Eldon .and Kansas City, Missouri. Our prior opinion appears at Mo., 312 S.W.2d 791. We held there that the order of the Commission requiring the continued operation of the trains was unreasonable and arbitrary, but ordered the case remanded for further consideration.. The evidence in that case concerned the operation of the trains for the period from June 1, 1954 to March 31, 1956. After remand, the Commission held a hearing on June 10, 1958, and on July 17, 1958, it entered an order again denying the company’s application and ordering rehabilitation of the service. From that order and all subsequent orders, including the one now under consideration, Commissioners Burton and Henson dissented. The order of July 17 was set aside on motion for rehearing, and a new hearing was held on September 17 and 18, 1958, after full notice to the various interested parties, attorneys and organizations. Following that hearing and on December 29, 1958, the Commission (on a 3-2 vote) entered the present Report and Order, again denying the application and ordering rehabilitation. References will be made in this opinion to various parts of that document; it consists of forty-one pages and it will be impossible to digest it in detail. On certiorari the Circuit Court of Cole County set aside the Report and Order and thereafter declined to enter a stay of its judgment pending this appeal. The Commission and various Intervenors have appealed.

We look to our prior opinion for an analysis of the facts from the initial hearing. We shall occasionally refer to the “prior record,” meaning the one upon which our opinion was based. That, opin-

[184]*184ion is the law of the case, except as the facts may now be substantially different. State ex rel. Anderson Motor Service Co. v. Public Service Commission, 348 Mo. 613, 154 S.W.2d 777, adopting majority opinion in 234 Mo.App. 470, 134 S.W.2d 1069. At the present hearings the entire former transcript and all exhibits were received in evidence. We shall review from the later hearings only such facts as have been offered to show a change in conditions. As before, the evidence is based largely on exhibits; the period of operations covered by most of the present exhibits is from April 1, 1956, to March 31, 1958; some supplemental figures on passenger patronage are furnished into September 1958. Much of the evidence (as previously) concerned the number of passengers riding these trains. Train No. 24 leaves Kansas City at 8:00 a.m. and arrives at Eldon, 136 miles east, and 11:45 a. m.; on the return trip (as Train No. 23) it leaves Eldon at 2:00 p. m. and arrives in Kansas City at 5:45 p.m. These are the scheduled hours. Generally, the route is through Pleasant Hill, Chilhowee, Windsor, Cole Camp, Stover and Versailles, but' there are other smaller communities on the line. During the period of 22 months covered by the prior record the average number of passengers per day going west was 14, and the average per day going east was 15.9; (312 S.W.2d loe. cit. 798); the average daily mileage per passenger was 77.6; the average daily crew expense (motor car operation) was $113.08; the revenue per train mile was $.812 and the loss per train mile was $.539. The last two items are supplied by exhibits now before us. Approximately 25% of the revenue of the trains was then and is now from passengers, the balance coming largely from mail and express, including baby chick shipments. The present record shows that, for the two year period from April 1, 1956, to March 31, 1958, the average daily number of passengers going west was 13.2, and the average daily number going east was 13.7. Both of these figures are decreases from the prior 22 month period. For the same period the daily mileage per passenger was 77.3 (down slightly), the average daily crew expense was $123.81, the revenue per train mile $.76, and the loss per train mile $.55. Clearly, these figures demonstrate a slightly increasing loss during that period, rather than a gain. However, the Commission stresses the fact that on the company’s own figures, as corroborated to some extent by figures kept by two protesting conductors, the passenger traffic increased in the first full six months of 1958 as compared with 1957, and also during July, August and September, 1958. We do not have comparative figures for July, August and September, 1957. For the first six months of 1957 the average number of passengers going east was 13.1 and.going west, 11.5; for 1958, it was 12.1, and 14.4, respectively. One 1958 figure is thus less than that shown in our prior opinion for the full 22 month period, and the other is .4 more. The east bound passenger average decreased in 1958 (first 6 months) over 1957, and the west bound increased by 2.9 passengers. It was shown that in 1958 the Missouri Pacific had ceased to run its afternoon passenger train from the south beyond Pleasant Hill, and that a few passengers transferred there to this Rock Island train, rather than wait for the next Missouri Pacific into Kansas City about two hours later. The Rock Island honored their tickets and billed the Missouri Pacific. This slight increase was not from traffic originating in communities along the Rock Island, for which the Commission is seeking to require service. While we do not take judicial notice of newspaper reports, and do not rely upon the point here in any event, we note that the White River Run of the Missouri Pacific (from which these transfers at Pleasant Hill emanated) was discontinued entirely on March 21, 1960. The protesting conductors’ individual reports indicated greater passenger numbers in June, July and August, 1958, ‘ thán in the prior months of 1958, but we have no suitable means [185]*185of comparison with prior years, and generally, the summer traffic appears to have been somewhat greater. The Commission states that one conductor’s figures (each ran one half the total days), averaged for 22 days 16.1 passengers going east and 25.3 passengers going west. The exhibit contained no average, hut we accept the computation; it covered only a period from August 5-September 15, 1958. The summer increases were accounted for in part by the fact that beginning in 1955 the YMCA in Kansas City had patronized these trains several times each summer for the transportation of groups of hoys (and perhaps others) to a summer camp located south of Versailles. The Commission estimated in its present report that the trains had carried 177 such persons (largely on one-half fare) during the summer of 1958 on the round trip between Kansas City and Versailles. This situation likewise existed during the period covered by our prior opinion. The exhibits indicate that generally the passenger traffic improved somewhat in the summer months, and that it did so in 1958.

The present application seeks to make no change in any phase of the freight traffic. The company has again tendered a substitute service as it did previously (312 S.W.2d loe. cit. 797) for the transportation of the very large volume of baby chick shipments from stations along the line to Kansas City, where various connections are made. This is an industry vital to parts of this region. These chicks are shipped by parcel post and express, largely by the former.

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335 S.W.2d 182, 1960 Mo. LEXIS 766, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-chicago-rock-island-pacific-railroad-v-public-service-mo-1960.