Pennsylvania Power & Light Co. is prepared to move forward quickly with its pending litigation challenging railroad freight rates for delivering coal from mines in West Virginia and Kentucky to PP&L power plants in Pennsylvania.

The go-ahead for PP&L's long-delayed rate case came in a ruling this week by the Surface Transportation Board that PP&L may challenge "through" rates between mines served by the CSX or Norfolk Southern railroads and PP&L power plants, which are served by Conrail.

Michael W. Snovitch, PP&L manager of fossil fuel supply, said PP&L will pursue vigorously its case against Conrail, CSX and Norfolk Southern for reasonable freight rates on shipments of low-sulfur coal from central Appalachia. PP&L expects the board to issue a procedural schedule in January.

"We are confident that our case against the railroads is strong, and that we will get the relief we need to ship low-sulfur coal at fair rates," he said.

Mines in central Appalachia are the nearest source of coal that meets federal Clean Air Act emissions requirements.

"Although we are pleased that our rate case finally will go forward, we are disappointed that the board's ruling in general was unfavorable to captive shippers on 'bottleneck' railroads," Snovitch said.

The board ruled that captive shippers such as PP&L may not challenge rates on the "bottleneck" portion of a shipment involving more than one railroad. Instead, they must challenge the rate for the entire shipment, from origin to destination (the "through" rate).

He added that the ruling does not change PP&L's position on mergers involving Conrail. PP&L plans to intervene in any merger application filed with the Surface Transportation Board, and will oppose any Conrail merger unless it includes conditions that give shippers in the Northeast competitive rail options.

PP&L believes that participation in merger hearings has become more important, given the board's ruling this week on the "bottleneck" issue.

PP&L ships about 8 million tons of coal annually to its power plants and ships nearly all of that coal by rail.