FROM Mr. Simms

MEMORANDUM L-37-302.3 Washington May 19, 1937 TO Mr. Schreiber FROM Mr. Simms SUBJECT Portland Electric PowerCompany (operating attimes as the Portland Railway Light & Power Company and the Pacific North West Service Company) Based upon the facts set forth in the attached summaries, it is my opinion that the Portland Electric Power Company is a carrier within the mean ing of the Railroad Retirement Act of 1935. The most cogent of these facts leading to this conclusion are as followst The carrier was incorporated on June 28, 1906, as the Portland Rail way Light and Power Company. On April 7, 1924, by a resolution adopted by the Board of Directors, its name was changed to the Portland Electric Power Com pany. The name was subsequently re-changed on March 13, 1930, to the Pacific North West Public Service Company, and again on April 5, 1933, to the Portland Electric Power Company. According to the Abstract Clerk, none of these changes in name was the result of new incorporation. That this is true would appear from the fact that the reports made under the changed names gave the date of incorporation of each as June 28, 1906, the same date the Portland Railway Light and Power Company was incorporated. It was, in other words, one company from the date of its original incorporation, operating at times under different names, such names being changed, apparently, by the Board of Directors through resolutions. The Official Guide, beginning in the year 1914, showed the carrier as connecting with the following companies; Southern Pacific; Northern Pacific Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railroad; United Railways; Oriental and Coast Steamship Companies; Oregon-Washington Railroad and Navigation Company; Great Northern Railway; the Oregon Electric Railway; Willamette and Columbia Steam ers; and the Willamette Valley Railroad. The equipment register, however, showed connections beginning in January and July of 1909 at Portland, Oregon, with the Astoria and Columbia River, the Northern Pacific, Southern Pacific, and the Spokane, Portland & Seattle. The register from 1917 through 1923, added to the above connections the Great Northern, the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company, the Oregon Electric, the United Railway at Portland, Oregon and the Willamette Valley Southern at Oregon City, and the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company at Fairview, Oregon. The carrier continued to connect with the majority of these roads in subsequent years, through 1936. The carrier’s road is of standard gauge, except in the cities, where it is three feet, six inches wide. Its rails weigh from 50 to 70 pounds. The principal coranodites carried by it are autos, brick and tile, cement, coal, grain, paper, potatoes, sand and gravel, machinery, lime rock, hay and forest products. The carrier began filing annual reports with the Commission in the year 1908, and has filed them each year since. Although its report for the year 1908 disclosed revenues received predominantly from the transportation of passen gers, $154,997 was shown as having been received from the transportation of freight, which figure, while negligible as compared to the $2,553,004 received from passenger, is, nevertheless, a large amount of revenue for any street, suburban or interurban carrier to receive from that source. In 1929, the freight revenue rose to $448,165, a greater rise than that of passenger revenues, which rose to $1,713,097. In 1933, it received $108,003.50 from freight and $103,673.04 from passengers. In 1934, the freight revenue rose to $124,332.55, while the passenger revenue rose to but $105,923.08. In 1935, the freight again rose to $139,217.01, while the passenger dropped to $103,369.67. During these last three years the freight revenues averaged from 104.2 to 134.7 of the passenger revenues. The carrier has filed with the Commission locomotive inspection reports from April, 1927 to the present time. It filed its first freight tariff on January 10, 1909, and its last on February 14, 1937; its first passenger tariff on July 26, 1910, and its last on September 26, 1934. It begem filing freight powers of attorney on January 6, 1909, and freight concurrences on June 23, 1910. At least since 1924, it has used standard railroad equipment, and in all probability used it prior thereto, although this is not definitely shown. It does not operate street car passenger service in any municipality. It has been considered hy the Commission in the following cases: Rules for Testing, 122 I.C.C. 414 (1927). Here the Commission found that the carrier could not be classed as a street, suburban or interurban railway and, therefore, was subject to the Locomotive Inspection Act. The oarrier, in its return to the questionnaire in this case, stated that it had track connections with the Southern Pacific, Spokane, Portland and Seattle, and Oregon-Washington Railroad and Navigation Company*; that it interchanged freight traffic with those raods as well as with the Horthern Pacific, Great Northern, and three other lines which were not named. It further stated that it published joint tariffs and through rates with those companies and that it was a party to trans-continental tariffs; and further that it performed switching and terminal services for industries and other carriers. * In the return referred to the carrier gave connections with the O.W.R. & N. which I interpreted to be the Oregon-Washington Railroad and Navigation Co, Three Lakes Lumber Company et al v. Washington Western Railway Co., 61 I.C.C. 408 (April 5, 1921). This complaint involved the failure of the defendants and their con nections to publish and maintain joint rates on the coast-group basis for the transportation of lumber and forest products from points on the Washington- Western to interstate destinations. Within the coast-group referred to, and connecting with the trunk lines were some 24 short line railroads which claimed to be common carriers and which filed tariffs with the Commission, but which were not accorded joint rates on the coast-group basis. The Com mission said that, "Along these roads, which range in length from 1.5 to 37 miles, there is an available supply of standing timber, and in general there are lumber mills in actual operation or available mill sites * * *. It is insisted by defendants that generally these short lines are entitled to participate in joint through rates on the coast-group basis to the same ex tent as the Washington Western * * *" The Commission addedt "The record now shows that aside from the Washington-Western *** the only independent short line railroads within the coast- group which are accorded the blanket rates are the British Columbia Electric Railway *** and, as to certain points, the Portland Railway Light and Power Company. Defendants contend that the extension of blanket rates to points on these five lines is justified by competition, and that the same character of competition does not exist with respect to points on the Washington Western." This case indicates that the carrier under consideration was operating in the same manner as a steam road. Cameron-Hogg Lumber Co. et al. vs. Director General as Agent, Fortland Railway Light & i W e r C o . , et al, 62 JTc.C. 2i8, The complainants in this case, in their complaint, alleged that the carload rates from timber and forest products from various points in Oregon on the suburban lines of the Portland Railway Light and Power Company, and on the Willamette Valley Southern to destinations in Montana and Idaho, were unjust, unreasonable, etc. They sought the establishment of just and reason able rates. The Commission made the following reference to the Portland Rail way Light and Power Company: "These* are standard gauge electric lines, operating through a heavily timbered and productive agricultural country, and conduct a general freight and passenger * Included was the Willamette Valley Southern. business. Their status as common carriers, subject to our jurisdiction, is unquestioned. "The Portland Railway connects with the main line of the Oregon-Washington Railroad and Navigation Company at Fair- view *** and with that line, the Southern Pacific, and the Spokane, Portland & Seattle at East Portland *** The Willamette Valley Southern connects with *** the Oregon City Line of the Portland Railway* at Oregon City. "The traffic in question moves over the combination rates made up of the original carrier's local lines to their junctions with the trunk lines *** The coast-group rates also apply on lumber from East Portland *** points on the Portland Railway within or near Portland; and all other traffic joint class and commodity rates are maintained from all stations on the Oregon City Branch of the Portland Railway ***" The rates were found not to be unreasonable. In view of these facts, it is my opinion that the Portland Electric Power Company is a carrier within the meaning of the Railroad Retirement Act, inasmuch as its operations are those typical of a so-called commercial line and are conducted comparably to those of a steam road of the same size. I recommend, therefore, that service performed for it be creditable under the Railroad Retirement Act, insofar as provable, from the date of its incorporation, June 28, 1906. This opinion covers service for it which may be provable under the names of the Portland Railway Light and Power Company from June 29, 1906, to April 6, 1924; for the Portland Electric Power Company from April 7, 1924, to March 12, 1930; for the Pacific North West Public Service Company from March 13, 1930, to April 4, 1933; and for the Portland Electric Power Company from April 5, 1933, to date; inasmuch as all of the foregoing were one corporation operating at various times under different names, apparently as a result of resolutions adopted by the Board of Direc tors.

Load more