Commentary

Threat Lurks to STB’s Independence

Once upon a time, conservative jurists were the best friends to federal regulatory agencies such as the Surface Transportation Board (STB). When those agencies pushed the boundaries of their decision-making independence, federal courts considered them experts in their field and accordingly deferred to their interpretations of the statutes they administered.

AAR to STB: No ‘Quick Fix’ to Service Problems

“The Class I railroads recognize that their recent service performance has not met many customers’ expectations,” the Association of American Railroads (AAR) wrote in a May 18 filing to the Surface Transportation Board (STB). But while the STB’s May 5 decision to release updated, more-comprehensive rules for reporting performance and employment metrics “reflects an understandable desire for quick action,” it was “not issued in a vacuum,” AAR pointed out.

Rail Insights 2022: Oberman, Itzkoff to Talk Freight Service

At Railway Age’s Eighth Annual Rail Insights Conference, to be held virtually June 23, Surface Transportation Board Chair Martin J. Oberman will cover freight railroad service, reciprocal switching, supply chain congestion, labor shortages and Amtrak access—among the controversial issues the Board has been addressing during recent hearings.

STB on Dec. 15, 2021 approved the Uinta Basin Railway. Its Office of Environmental Analysis last summer issued a Final Environmental Impact Statement for the project, identifying the 88-mile Whitmore Park Alternative as the environmentally preferred route, one of three analyzed.

Builders Selected for Uinta Basin Railway

AECOM, Skanska-Clyde Joint Venture and Obayashi Corporation have landed the final engineering and construction contracts for Uinta Basin Railway, slated to serve the mineral, energy, agricultural, construction and manufacturing industries in northeastern Utah.

Commentary

Gulf Coast Battle: An Interim Report

The witness phase of the slugout between Amtrak on one side and CSX, Norfolk Southern (NS) and the Port of Mobile on the other, ended May 12 as its 11th day concluded. It ended not with T.S. Eliot’s oft-quoted “whimper” but truly with a bang.

T&I STB Reauthorization Hearing Deja Vu All Over Again

The House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure hearing, “Board Member Views on Surface Transportation Board Reauthorization,” was for the most part a rehash of the topics that the STB has been covering in its own hearings on freight rail service problems, reciprocal switching and other areas the industry has had to address in recent weeks. T&I Chairman Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), who is not seeking re-election in this year’s mid-terms, and Railroad, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee Chair Donald Payne Jr. (D-N.J.) chaired the hearing, which in a press release was couched as “The Surface Transportation Board’s Role in Resolving Freight Rail Conflicts.”

Strafford Joins Steptoe & Johnson LLP

Timothy Strafford has been appointed a Partner for Steptoe & Johnson LLP’s Transportation Practice Group in Washington, D.C. He served most recently as Associate General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for the Association of American Railroads (AAR).

Norfolk Southern (NS) President and CEO Alan H. Shaw

Shaw to Shareholders: NS Committed to ‘Customer Centricity,’ Being ‘Operations-Driven’

Norfolk Southern (NS) President and CEO Alan H. Shaw on May 12 discussed his railroad’s top priority—the restoration of service “to the quality our customers expect and deserve”—at an annual meeting of

STB to Class I’s: ‘Industry-Wide Transparency, Accountability, and Service Improvements’

On May 5—a little more than a week after its April 26-27 “Urgent Issues in Freight Rail Service” hearing—the Surface Transportation Board, voting unanimously, has issued updated, more-comprehensive rules for reporting performance and employment metrics. The eight-part regulations, which mostly affect the “Big 4”—BNSF, CSX, Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific—include filing of service recovery plans by May 20, followed by frequent progress reports and biweekly conference calls with STB staff.

Commentary

Unrehearsed, Unpolished, Inexperienced

FINANCIAL EDGE, RAILWAY AGE MAY 2022 ISSUE: Sports journalists say they don’t root for teams; they root for stories. At “Financial Edge,” the circumstance is the same. There always needs to be something to write about. Nonetheless, at its heart, “Financial Edge” roots for the railroads. The North American rail system should be an unfailing anchor for the nation, for its survival, growth and economic stability. Unfortunately, North American rail continues to look like a first-time performer at “open mike” at the logistics theater: unrehearsed, unpolished and inexperienced.

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