STB chairman taps Hart to mediate rate dispute

STB chairman taps Hart to mediate rate dispute    Roger Nober, chairman of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board in Washington, D.C., has named Clyde J. Hart Jr., a former U.S. maritime administrator, to mediate a railroad rate dispute filed recently with the STB.
   The parties in the dispute are the Western Fuels Association Inc., the Basin Electric Power Cooperative Inc., and the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Co. This is the second time the STB has used mediation under rules adopted in April 2003. The new regulations 'require that a party challenging the reasonableness of a rail rate before the board must participate in mediation with the defendant railroad,' the board said in a statement.
   Hart is vice president of government affairs for the American Bus Association. He served as maritime administrator in the Department of Transportation from 1998 to 2001.