In calling for the rule, Biden is resuscitating one first requested in 2016 but abandoned during the Trump administration. That rule came after a 2011 request by the National Industrial Transportation League, which argued that certain shippers with access to only one freight railroad should be granted access to a competing railroad, which would carry their cargo for transfer to a preferred carrier if an interchange is within 30 miles.
The proposal came with guardrails specifying that the STB could reject switching agreements deemed unsafe or impossible, and that the STB would have to agree that the arrangement would create competition and be in the public interest.
While railroads can voluntarily agree to such switching practices, sometimes because of legacy agreements between shippers and railroads, and sometimes as a result of concessions created out of railroad mergers, the proposal would allow the federal government to force the issue.
Canadian experience
Scott Jensen, director of issue communications for the American Chemistry Council, which backs the change, said the fact that railroads already engage in the practice means the switch would not be nearly as daunting as they make it sound. Canada, he said, has a similar arrangement in place, and “that network certainly has not crashed or gotten overly congested. In fact, it’s actually functioned quite well.”
Such an arrangement “does offer some competitive pressure, and it seems to work,” he said.
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Freight rail bucks Biden's plea to share cargo - Roll Call
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