Norfolk Southern (NS) and Surface Transportation Board (STB) officials met last month to address reciprocal switching regulations, which STB first proposed in 2016 and has been encouraged to review by an Executive Order on competition issued in 2021.
What’s the consequence of appointing as chairperson of the Surface Transportation Board (STB) a veteran of rough-and-tumble Chicago politics? Contentment and consternation, it seems.
Vermont Transportation Agency (VTrans) and Vermont Rail System (VRS) have reached a settlement agreement with CSX, Norfolk Southern (NS) and Genesee & Wyoming (GWI) that resolves their concerns about competition if CSX and Pan Am merge.
Democrat Karen J. Hedlund on Jan. 3 was sworn in as the newest member of the Surface Transportation Board (STB), succeeding Republican Ann D. Begeman.
Potential merger partners Canadian Pacific (CP) and Kansas City Southern (KCS) on Dec. 28 submitted their safety integration plan to the Surface Transportation Board (STB) and Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) for review, meeting the STB’s procedural schedule deadline.
The Surface Transportation Board (STB) has denied a shipper group request to pause its proposed rulemaking on a voluntary arbitration program aimed at resolving small rate cases.
The Surface Transportation Board On Dec. 20 issued a decision granting approval for exemptions sought by Watco Holdings, Inc., and two of its subsidiaries in the acquisition of approximately 652 miles of rail line in Wisconsin and Michigan from Wisconsin Central Ltd. (WCL), which is controlled by CN.
By unanimous consent, Democrat Karen J. Hedlund was confirmed by the Senate late Dec. 16 to the five-member Surface Transportation Board (STB). She succeeds Republican Ann D. Begeman, whose second term had expired in 2020 and who has been serving out a statutory maximum one-year holdover period. STB members are limited to two five-year maximum terms, with a one-year holdover if a successor has not been Senate-confirmed.
The Surface Transportation Board (STB) on Dec. 15 approved the construction and operation of the Uinta Basin Railway in Utah; STB Chairman Martin Oberman was the sole dissenter.
No two words torment railroad executives and their investors more than “reciprocal switching”—a potential Surface Transportation Board (STB) decree that a railroad with sole physical access to a shipper facility transfer (switch) a shipper’s cars to a junction point with a second (competing) railroad. The second railroad pays a compensatory per-car switching fee whose reasonableness is determined by the STB.
