the "special movements" as defined above in item 12410 of the switching tariff, and thus the switching charges provided in that item were correctly applied to the considered shipments.

Concerning the section 1 issues, PC contends these weekend switching charges are just and reasonable in view of the additional expense allegedly involved in providing this service. However, both GM and GMI insist that weekend switching service is not a service in addition to the line-haul transportation and thus when a carrier applies weekend switching charges this is allegedly charging twice for the same service in violation of section 1, citing Los Angeles Switching Case, 234 U.S. 294 (1914).

GM argues that PC's practice of assessing weekend switching charges at certain points and not others where the same tariff applies is a violation of section 3(1), citing Atchison Board of Trade v. Atchison, T. & S.F. Ry. Co., 305 I.C.C. 637 (1958) PC denies that this allegation has any relevance because, with reference to the considered shipments, there is no showing that GM has suffered any injury due to this practice.

EXPEDITED SWITCHING

As noted, certain shipments were charged for expedited switching during the 5-day week. These switching charges were based on item 124205 of the above-described switching tariff as follows.

Item 12420:

When patron request placement of either loaded or empty cars prior to the time these cars can be placed at the ordinary operating convenience of the PC, the PC will assess a charge of RB 8500 for each cut of not more than five (5) cars moved from one location to one other location. This charge will be in addition to all other charges. The PC will perform this service only if it can do so without undue interruption of normal operations.

This charge is applicable only on traffic that has had or will receive a road-haul.

Item 12420 applies only to traffic switched at Lansing; and GM has paid additional switching charges only when the cars were moved from the C&O interchange on the basis that such service was beyond that covered by the line-haul rates. It was established because no tariff items covered the expedited switching service being requested by Oldsmobile at Lansing beginning in early 1968. A witness for PC states that PC would be requested to make a special switching run to

"This item first became effective October 22, 1968, numbered as item 2917, supplement 193, in Penn Central Tariff 20-C, I.C.C. 1795 (NYC Series).

the C&O interchange, pick up the cars, and deliver them immediately to the Oldsmobile plant rather than wait delivery when the next regular switching crew went into service in the normal course of business. PC stresses how much these normal operations are disrupted whenever GM requests expedited switching service.

Monday through Friday, PC operates with 13 regular crews, 6 crews on the first shift, 4 crews on the second shift, and 3 crews on the third shift. The first operates 2 crews at 7 a.m., 1 crew at 7:30 a.m., and 3 crews at 8 a.m. The second operates 1 crew at 3 p.m. and 3 at 4 p.m. The third operates 1 crew at 10:30 p.m. and 2 at 11:59 p.m.

Each day there are approximately 75 railcars pulled and 75 rail cars placed at the 3 Oldsmobile plants. The normal weekday switching requirements for these plants include a daily switch once on each of the three shifts, and twice on track 11 on the second shift. Oldsmobile provides PC with a list of the loaded railcars it wants placed for each shift by telephone calls at 8 a.m., 2 p.m., and 9:30 p.m. Each call from Oldsmobile will also designate the specific tracks to be switched and the time of day for the switch. After a switch list is made out, the crews get the specified railcars from Saginaw Yard, then they go to the New Yard for additional cars, then to the plant. New Yard is a direct support yard for Oldsmobile plant 1 located nearby, and only cars for Oldsmobile are kept there. Only on rare occasions are all cars called for in one shift located in that one yard. Serving the Oldsmobile plant in this manner takes an entire day for PC crews. Very seldom do the crews on the Oldsmobile job do any other work in Lansing.

After Oldsmobile has placed its initial call stating its switching needs for the forthcoming shift, it occasionally telephones to add or delete cars. The original switch lists having been made out and the crews having commenced setting out the cars on the original list, PC must now prepare a new list, cars have to be shifted around, and sometimes new cars must be added or others cut out and returned to the yard. PC's trainmaster states that whenever a request is made for expedited switching service, "the performance of which is disruptive to the operation of the railroad's work plan and normal switching activity, it is treated as a request for special switching service. These special switch charges are assessed under item 12420 of Conrail Tariff 40109, I.C.C. 155 (PC Series)." The substance of this tariff item has been in effect since 1968. PC did not begin issuing balance due bills under the item until 1973.

PC introduced the following evidence of the normal switching practices at the Fisher Body Plant in Lansing, and of the allegedly disruptive influence of expedited switching. Fisher's normal switching requirements from Monday through Friday are set forth in a printed schedule of timed switches. On the third shift, Fisher provides PC with information by 11:45 p.m. as to which cars they will need and what tracks are to be switched. The plant is available (open) for switching at 3:30 a.m., and the switch must be completed by 6:30 a.m. for track 8 and the whole plant by 6:45 a.m. On the second shift, Fisher provides its switching order as follows: 8 a.m. for the 11:15 a.m. switch (tracks available at 10:45); 8:30 a.m. for the 11:30 a.m. switch (tracks available at 11 a.m.); 8:30 a.m. for the 12:30 p.m. switch (tracks available at 12 noon); 12 noon for the 5 p.m. switch (tracks available at 4:15 p.m.); and 12 noon for the 5:15 p.m. switch (tracks available at 4:30 p.m.). On the first shift, the plant provides its switching orders at 6:30 p.m. for its 9:45 p.m., 10 p.m., and 10:30 p.m. switches, with the tracks being available at 9:15 p.m., 9:30 p.m., and 10 p.m., respectively. The train crews work a full 8 hours for Fisher on the third shift, 8 hours plus overtime each day on the first shift, and 4 hours on the second shift. The regular crew on the second shift will use the first part of its workday to help out at the Oldsmobile plant. During the course of an average weekday, PC train crews working these three shifts will place 70 cars, and pull 70 cars.

In addition to its normal switching requirements during the 5-day week, Fisher will frequently request a special switch of from 1 to 5 cars. There are times when these requests are made as often as once a day. About 75 percent of these requests are for cars to be added to the switch orders given earlier in the day, or to have the carrier spot (deliver) a car immediately upon its arrival in Lansing. Special crews are required to perform this expedited switching, because the regular crews normally cannot handle the additional volume.

The remaining 25 percent of Fisher's requests are for the pick up, switching, and placing of cars which arrive on the lines of the C&O. Ordinarily, each morning Fisher advises PC by telephone which railcars it wants delivered by the second shift. These cars are picked up by PC from 10 to 12 a.m. by crews working regularly in the C&O interchange service. By 2 p.m., Fisher advises which of these cars it will need by 6 a.m. the next morning. However, sometimes special crews must be used to avoid disruption of the described time-switch requirements of the Fisher plant. Whenever possible, another

regular crew is taken from its own assigned work to perform this special service. Since the location of the requested cars, and the engine and crew chosen to do the work vary from day to day, the time required to perform this type of special switching service varies greatly. The required time varies from 1.5 to 4 hours, and the PC trainmaster states that it "results in a significant disruption of our normal work schedules."

Fisher's traffic manager at Lansing points out two contradictions in PC's argument. First, he notes PC's contention that it applies the switching charge only when the requested service is disruptive to the railroads' normal switching service. Nevertheless, he points to 58 of the considered shipments where, despite the fact that Fisher's request was out-of-cycle, PC managed to place the cars along with the others in a regularly scheduled movement and thus the requested switching service did not disrupt normal operations. Also he notes that, at one point in PC's statement, it contends that expedited switching charges are due only when the cars are brought in from the C&O interchange. Nevertheless, on several of the considered shipments PC has applied expedited switching charges on cars switched from the nearby Saginaw and New Yards.

PC introduced a cost study intended to show the additional expense involved when it provides weekend switching service, and expedited switching service.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

Weekend Switching.-Historically, the Nation's railroads have made no extra charge for weekend switching. As one of the witnesses for PC states, the normal workweek exceeded 5 days up until the end of World War II. Like switching service during the 5day workweek, weekend switching has been considered as part of the origin or destination switching service traditionally included under the line-haul rates. The railroads have not only provided service 7 days a week, but also demurrage, storage, and other accessorial charges have traditionally applied on Saturdays and Sundays like any other day of the week. The instant record shows. that GM received weekend swtiching service from PC without reference to an additional switching charge prior to 1972. The issue here, is whether the considered weekend switching service is beyond the carrier's ordinary operating convenience as defined in the rules tariff and constitutes "special movements at terminal points". As noted, the rules tariff provides that no additional charge will be

made where the switches are not in excess of the carrier's "ordinary operating convenience" as defined in note 2. The substance of tariff note 2 was first approved by the Commission Carrier Switching at Industrial Plants in the East, 294 I.C.C. 159 (1955). Various parts of that note, as brought forward in subsequent tariffs, have been defined and interpreted in later decisions of the Commission, such as Terminal Allowance, Copperweld Steel Co., Warren, Ohio, 298 I.C.C. 629 (1956), and Ford Motor Company v. Erie Lackawanna Ry. Co. 353 I.C.C. 411 (1977), but do not deal with the precise issue here.

The most significant fact about note 2 in the present context, is the absence not only of the term "weekend" but also the term "weekday". Instead, the only reference to any specific period of time appears in the following sentence:

Ordinarily it (ordinary operating convenience) contemplates only one switch a day except when additional switches are made by the carrier in its own or the public interest, as distinguished from the industry's interest, to secure the prompt release of equipment or facilities, or when necessitated by the volume of traffic.

A fair interpretation of the phrase "one switch a day" is that it means any day of the week including Saturday or Sunday. PC correctly points out that the above-quoted phrase does not make 7day-a-week switching service mandatory at all switching stations on the railroad. It notes that there are, on its lines, certain low-traffic stations where only biweekly or triweekly switching is necessary. This argument is beside the point, and does not answer the question of whether weekend switching, when performed, is beyond the carrier's ordinary operating convenience thereby making applicable a switching charge in addition to the line-haul rate. We find not a single word or phrase in note 2 to support PC's interpretation that it excludes weekend switching from the carrier's ordinary operating convenience. The principal import of note 2 is that more than one switch a day is justified in the carrier's or the public's interest "to secure the prompt release of equipment or facilities, or when necessitated by the volume of traffic." Here again, it is significant that there is no reference to any particular day of the week, and the phrase "one switch a day" is unclear in this respect. This Commission has frequently held that when a word or phrase is ambiguous or unclear, the tariff must be construed against the carrier in favor of the shipper. See Edwards Land & Timber Co. v. Gulf, M. & N. R. Co., 201 I.C.C. 265, 267 (1934), General Motor