III. Procedural History
BART filed this application on February 9, 1999, and notice of the filing appeared on the Commission's Daily Calendar on February 16, 1999. On March 18, 1999, Rail Safety filed a response to the application. On March 29, 1999, BART filed a reply to the Rail Safety response.
On May 11, 1999, a prehearing conference (PHC) was held in this matter. A second PHC was conducted on September 1, 1999, to ascertain the application status. On November 8, 1999, Rail Safety provided notice of a settlement conference to be held on November 15, 1999. On November 18, 1999, BART and Rail Safety filed a motion for adoption of settlement.1 This matter was submitted on November 18, 1999.
An additional PHC was held on March 23, 2000. During that PHC conference Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) DeUlloa questioned the parties at great length about the terms of the settlement, issues related to compliance and various commitments, and generally raised questions about whether the proffered settlement truly resolved (or even had the mechanism for resolution of) the many issues remaining before revenue service could be authorized in a safe manner.
The parties committed to consider ALJ DeUlloa's concerns and were given 30 days to respond to his questions, as well as seeing if agreement could be reached between BART and the Rail Safety unit over the safety certification program for the testing program and revenue service. The parties subsequently requested additional time and, on May 10, 2000, filed a new settlement agreement that supercedes the settlement of November 18, 1999.
1 The parties originally filed a Settlement Agreement on September 16, 1999. In order to comply with the requirement of Rule 51.1 to hold a settlement conference, the Settlement Agreement was subsequently filed with the Commission on November 18, 1999.
