Commentary

New chiefs ID’d for FRA, AAR law department

As the White House considers candidates for Senate confirmation as the next Federal Railroad Administrator, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx says he will name his Department of Transportation chief of staff Sarah Feinberg — a long-time Democratic operative with strong White House ties — as acting administrator upon the voluntary departure this week of FRA chief Joe Szabo.

Commentary

Hello? It’s Dan Elliott for President Obama

News item: Surface Transportation Board (STB) Chairman Dan Elliott was forced to bid adieu Dec. 31, 2014, after the Senate failed to confirm his renomination. President Obama still could make a recess appointment prior to a Republican controlled Senate sworn-in Jan. 6.

Commentary

Old threats from a new Congress

In a twist to 18th century satirist Jonathan Swift’s “Modest Proposal,” National Industrial Transportation League (NITL) President Bruce Carlton suggests shippers consume (as in “eat”) their railroads.
Commentary

Post-election: Railroads look OK; rail labor, Amtrak not so good

What does Senate Republican control and the largest House Republican majority since the 1940s mean for railroad reregulation, Amtrak’s future, high- and higher-speed rail, transit funding, Positive Train Control (PTC), corporate tax reform, short line tax credits, the future of coal, and a minimum crew-consist mandate?
Commentary

Unknotting rail congestion compels investment

Unraveling the knot restricting rail network fluidity cannot be achieved through Surface Transportation Board (STB) intimidation of rail CEOs, or by the agency’s issuance of an emergency service order instructing one railroad to operate over the tracks of another, or by merging the nation’s seven major rail systems into a North American duopoly.

Commentary

Sen. Durbin emerging as STB chairman’s nemesis

“Tawdry,” is how one Washington transportation attorney describes the self-interest assaults by powerful congressional lawmakers on federal regulatory agency officials.

Commentary

Is FRA’s Szabo headed to the STB?

Joe Szabo, the former union boss and now embattled Federal Railroad Administrator, may be on his way out—to another federal railroad regulatory agency, actually, if rumors involving his former Chicago condo neighbor and friend, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), are correct.
Commentary

Senate odd fellows unite to pack STB

An Iraqi proverb reads, “Show them death and they will accept a fever.”

Commentary

Rail revenue adequacy? Well, sort of

The Surface Transportation Board (STB) ruled Sept. 2 that five Class I railroads—BNSF, U.S. affiliates of Canadian National and Canadian Pacific, Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific—are revenue adequate. That is, they achieved a rate of return on investments used to provide railroad service that is at least equal to the average cost of that investment capital.

Commentary

BLET in catbird seat over crew consist

News item: Vouchsafed to work jointly in gaining legislation or regulation mandating two crew members on every freight train are the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Union (SMART) and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET).

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