(The following story by John D. Boyd appeared on The Journal of Commerce website on May 5, 2010.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., told a rally of freight shippers that one major railroad is resisting efforts to negotiate legislation that would set new rail competition rules and give customers more power to challenge rail rates.
“There are four railroads. I think we are making inroads with three; there’s one that we are not making inroads with,” he told a group of customers from chemical, utility, steel, farming and other industries. “The question is: Can three trump one with pressure? I think the answer to that should be yes, but what they want is complex,” he said.
Rockefeller chairs the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, which passed a bill in December to reauthorize and expand the Surface Transportation Board that regulates rail service and rates, along with new competition rules that are more friendly to shippers. Railroad executives have sharply criticized that measure, with some saying they would oppose it becoming law without significant changes.
The four largest U.S. railroads are Union Pacific Railroad, BNSF Railway, Norfolk Southern Railway and CSX Transportation. Rockefeller would not name the carrier that he indicated has taken a harder line in negotiations over the bill’s language.
The group he addressed was an annual Rail Customer Day program organized by the activist shipper lobby Consumers United for Rail Equity. About 150 shipper representatives planned to follow the rally by visiting lawmakers’ offices through the day. That number was a fraction of the hundreds who spread across Capitol Hill earlier this year on behalf of railroads.
Other speakers at the CURE event suggested this could be their last such gathering, as they expect the long-sought regulatory changes soon to become law. But Rockefeller said “You’ve got to understand this is not over . . . we have not got this done yet.”
He said railroads would prefer the legislation fail and leave things as they are. But “I have to get both sides to agree” on the terms, he said, “otherwise they walk and they are happy and then they have the STB to deal with.” Although the STB has dealt railroads some defeats, he said carriers would prefer to deal with that agency as currently structured and then appeal decisions they don’t like.