(The following story by John D. Boyd appeared on The Journal of Commerce website on September 15, 2010.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A national rail plan envisioned by the Obama administration must be preceded by shipper-supportive changes in rail competition rules either through a change in law or by regulatory action, said Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va.
The chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee also appeared to concede, in a Sept. 15 hearing on rail policy, that his panel’s shipper-friendly rail regulatory reform legislation might not pass this year.
But he vowed to continue the fight and make sure the reforms come about. He said this was just the first in a series of hearings he would hold on rail-shipper issues, and that a report his staff prepared on rail finances and pricing was just the first of several, as he will also ask the DOT to prepare some.
Rockefeller said the Department of Transportation has been drawing up a national rail plan that is “long overdue.” However, he said, “some things are going to have to change before this happens, and they are going to have to change big time.” That was the first time that he has linked approval of the administration’s transportation strategy to his rail competition measures.
In remarks that sometimes strayed from his prepared text, Rockefeller said railroads “have lived so comfortably” with the 1980 deregulation rules that give them strong pricing power over shippers that are captive to a single rail line, first under the Interstate Commerce Commission when it regulated railroads and then its successor Surface Transportation Board.
Railroads are fighting, he said, to preserve the status quo of regulations, resisting the committee’s efforts to get its rail competition bill through the full Senate. “And since they’ve had such input, if not ownership, until recently of the ICC, the STB and their respective chairmen, I can see why they don’t want to change,” Rockefeller said.
Although he said he began this legislative effort with apparent initial agreement between shippers and railroads to help lawmakers try to bridge their differences, “it has felt at times like the railroads – some much more than others – have attempted to delay this process, hoping that these reforms will die if they can only stretch the process out through the elections.”
Rockefeller said he will keep working to put his proposed changes in place. “I want everybody in this room to know that whether we do it this year or next year, railroad reform is going to happen. Either Congress will do it, or it will need to be done through regulation.”