Stanley Forman Reed

“ At present a motor service is auxiliary and supplemental to rail service, in the Commission's view, when the railroad-affiliated motor carrier in a subordinate capacity aids the railroad in its rail operations by enabling the railroad to give better service or operate more cheaply rather than independently competing with other motor carriers. ”

“ The Rock Island Motor Transit Company, a wholly-owned corporate subsidiary of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Company and its predecessors, is a common carrier by motor vehicle engaged in transporting property in interand intrastate commerce, exclusively, for all practical purposes, along the rail lines of its parent corporation in Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Tennessee, Texas and Kansas. ”

“ If the problem of limitation of the certificate to motor service in rail operation occurred to the applicant or the Commission, precedents from the Barker case to the White Line application would have indicated an inclusion in the certificate of a limitation of auxiliary to and supplemental of rail service.
Transit maintains that the order is final; that the result is the same as though the service requirements of the order of approval were written into the operating certificate as directed by the statute. ”

“ Except as hereinafter indicated, nonapproved operations are those which otherwise compete with the railroad itself, those which compete with an established motor carrier, or which invade to a substantial degree a territory already adequately served by another rail carrier.↑ 'Condition 1 (same as condition 1, 340 U.S. 425, 71 S.Ct. 386, supra) limits the character of service to be performed by the petitioner to that which is auxiliary to or supplemental of the rail service of the railway. It limits the service to be performed by truck to the transportation of the rail traffic of the railway. ”

“ A railroad purchaser does not necessarily receive all rights a certificate holder possesses. Because of the National Transportation Policy and § 5, making a railroad's purchase subject to conditions, as hereinbefore described, approval may be conditioned by the Commission on the railroad purchaser's willingness to accept a narrower certificate than that possessed by the seller. ”

“ It cannot carry on a general all-motor operation on its own billings or under motor rates, joint or local. [5] It cannot haul through motor traffic at rail tariffs between the 'key points,' Omaha, Des Moines and the Bettendorf-Rock Island-Moline center. Furthermore, Transit rests under the threat of possible future restrictions as need may be shown for their application to hold its operations, under changing conditions, to those then reasonably determined by the Commission to be needed to keep Transit's motor service auxiliary and supplemental to its parent's rail service. ”

“ The latter service involves the transportation of general commodities, in any quantity, under motor carrier bills of lading and tariffs and at motor carrier rates. * * * Substituted service was being performed by applicant at the time of the hearing in January, 1945, over several routes most of which radiate out of Pittsburgh and Columbus. ”

“ Pennsylvania Truck Lines, Inc., 5 M.C.C. 9; 51st Annual Report 68-69. The Commission, in Appendix B to its brief in Nos. 38 and 39, United States v. Texas & Pacific Motor Transport Co., 340 U.S. 450, 71 S.Ct. 422, has collected 120 cases, beginning in 1936 with vol. 1 of the Motor Carrier Reports, dealing with the issuance of certificates to motor subsidiaries of rail carriers. ”

“ The judgment of the three-judge District Court is reversed and the proceeding is remanded with directions to dismiss the complaint.
Mr. Justice BLACK, Mr. Justice DOUGLAS, Mr. Justice JACKSON and Mr. Justice BURTON dissent and would affirm the District Court's opinion. ”