A bipartisan bill that charges the Surface Transportation Board to raised define what should constitute “reasonable” rail service has been reintroduced within the Senate.
The Reliable Rail Service Act, introduced by Sens. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Roger Marshall, R-Kan., charges the Surface Transportation Board to refine the definition of the common carrier obligation, which the senators say is currently ambiguous.
The common carrier obligation calls upon the railroads to supply rail service on an inexpensive request. The federal statute got here out of the Staggers Act of 1980, which deregulated the freight rail industry. In return for deregulating the rail industry and enabling the railroads to have greater input of their business decisions, the freight railroads must provide service to rail shippers.
Baldwin had introduced an analogous bill last September.
In accordance with a bill summary provided by Baldwin, the laws seeks to make clear the common carrier obligation and establish specific criteria for STB to find out whether a rail carrier has violated the common carrier obligation.
That criteria includes the impacts that reductions or changes in rail service may need had on rail service; the provision and maintenance of reasonable local service schedules and delivery windows; the impacts of reductions in employment levels and in equipment; and the power of the railroad to satisfy local operational and repair requirements.
“The Reliable Rail Service Act gives the Board needed statutory clarity together with significant discretion and adaptability to account for variations unique to local rail carrier and shipper circumstances, which is able to provide transparency for all stakeholders while improving STB’s oversight to assist address our nation’s freight railroad supply chain challenges and lower costs for consumers,” said the bill summary.
Defining what ought to be regarded as sufficient rail service and determining whether individual railroads have been meeting their common carrier obligation have been key issues lately. Quite a few rail shippers and rail unions have argued over the past 12 months specifically that the decline in railroads’ head count levels, which they attributed to precision scheduled railroading in addition to to layoffs during COVID-19 pandemic, could have hampered rail service because there weren’t enough crews and resources available to satisfy market demand.
Meanwhile, recent proceedings involving BNSF (NYSE: BRK-B) and Union Pacific (NYSE: UNP) have also raised questions on whether STB should redefine the common carrier obligation and whether Congress can grant the board the authority to accomplish that.
Last week’s introduction of the Reliable Rail Service Act garnered support from greater than 30 shippers groups in addition to 14 rail unions.
“Clarification of the common carrier obligation has been needed for many years and this bipartisan bill provides Surface Transportation Board (STB) with clear oversight rules to assist address our nation’s freight railroad supply chain challenges and improve rail service for agricultural shippers,” said Mike Seyfert, president and CEO of the National Grain and Feed Association, in a news release last week.
“American dairy producers depend upon fair and consistent rail service on each ends of their business — from sourcing feed and inputs to transporting dairy products to finish customers, each domestic and foreign,” said Jim Mulhern, president and CEO of the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF). “The logistics challenges which have plagued the dairy industry over the past several years have been exacerbated by outdated rules governing rail freight movements.
“NMPF thanks Senators Baldwin and Marshall for introducing the bipartisan Reliable Rail Service Act today that will provide statutory clarity and enhanced oversight to the Surface Transportation Board to correct the rail transportation challenges faced by the U.S. dairy industry. We stay up for working with Congress to maneuver this necessary laws into law.”
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