Big hitters prepare for STB hearing

Railroads and some of their biggest customers have assembled all-star panels to argue their cases as the Surface Transportation Board opens two days of hearings this week on in issue worth billions dollars to each side, depending on the outcome of the proceeding. The question is whether the federal government should require the railroads to offer shippers new competitive options that would drive down rates.

The board on Monday released the speakers’ lineup for the June 22-23 hearings. Panel 1 will consist of “members of Congress, speaking on arrival.” Subsequent panels will try to convince Panel 1, as well as the STB commissioners, that their cause is just.

Representing shippers will be such corporate giants as E.I. Dupont de Nemours and Company, Dow Chemical Company, Occidental Chemical Corporation, and Olin Corporation. They will be backed up by a phalanx of special-interest or trade groups: National Industrial Transportation League, Consumers United for Rail Equity, National Association of Wheat Growers, National Grain and Feed Association, Western Coal Traffic League, Concerned Captive Coal Shippers, American Chemistry Council, and the Chlorine Institute.

Speaking for the railroads (and contending that the only trouble shippers have with the Staggers Rail Act of 1980 is that is has worked just as intended) will be CEOs Michael J. Ward of CSX, Union Pacific’s James R. Young, and Kansas City Southern’s Michael R. Haverty, along with top talent from BNSF and Norfolk Southern.

Speaking for the railroad industry will be one of the most forceful lobbyists in Washington: Association of American Railroads President Edward R. Hamburger. The American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association’s Richard F. Timmons, another respected presence on Capitol Hill, will speak up for several hundred small railroads.