From PennLive

LOCK HAVEN –The legal battle over a contract to operate five shortline railroads in central Pennsylvania is headed back to Clinton County court.

Last week, Commonwealth Court ordered most of the case remanded to county Judge Michael F. Salisbury so he can consider new facts that may affect the resolution of the claims.

The controversy stems from a July 8, 2015, vote by the SEDA-COG Joint Rail Authority to award a seven-year, multimillion dollar contract to Carload Express, based in Oakmont, to operate the shortlines over its 200 miles of track.

A contract was not awarded because the authority contended that it needed nine votes from its 16-member board to do so. But the vote was 7-3 with six abstentions, five resulting from board members’ ties to firms that ship freight on the shortlines.

The authority asked Salisbury to confirm nine votes were needed to award a contract. He did but a three-member Commonwealth Court panel overturned his ruling, saying the law allows contracts to be awarded with a simple majority of the board members in attendance.

It’s not known how remanding the lawsuit will affect a previous vote by the authority to appeal the case to the state Supreme Court.

Thursday’s appellate court ruling came on a motion for re-argument by Susquehanna Union Railroad Co., the current operator.

Susquehanna Union is challenging the vote, claiming five of the authority members who abstained did not have to do so. It also argues the vote of authority member Donald Purcell should be voided because, in a sworn deposition, he stated he meant to give Susquehanna Union a raw score of 60 out of 100 points when ranking the three finalists.

He testified that he did not realize he had submitted an incomplete ranking sheet giving Susquehanna Union zero. A 60 raw score ranking would have resulted in a tie between Susquehanna Union and Carload. Susquehanna contends that several authority members voted for Carload based on its top ranking,

Susquehanna Union’s shortlines that use authority track are:

The Juniata Valley in the Lewistown area, Lycoming Valley between Avis and Muncy through Williamsport, Nittany & Bald Eagle between Lock Haven and Tyrone with links to Bellefonte and State College, Shamokin Valley between Sunbury and Shamokin and North Shore between Northumberland and the Berwick area.

Carload operates Allegheny Valley, Southwest Pennsylvania, Ohio Terminal and Delmarva Central shortlines in western Pennsylvania and in Delaware, Maryland and Ohio.