By Railfan & Railroad Staff

The U.S. Surface Transportation Board has given the high green to a plan to build an 11-mile short line that will connect Union Pacific’s Shafter Subdivision with an industrial park in Grantsville, Utah. Part of the line will be built on the right-of-way of the long-abandoned Western Pacific Warner Branch. 

The federal regulator made the decision to allow Savage Tooele Railroad to construct the new route on April 1. 

It’s unclear when construction of the new route will begin, but the decision by the STB also ends a conflict between UP and rival BNSF Railway. BNSF has trackage rights over the Shafter Sub and because of that it argued it should be able to interchange with the soon-to-be-built short line. However, UP still owns the first mile of the branch and BNSF does not have trackage rights over that part of the former WP.