(The following story by Eric Eyre appeared on the Charleston Gazette website on May 12, 2010.)
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., has intensified his push to reform the railroad industry in recent weeks.
Rockefeller, who’s sponsoring a bill called the Surface Transportation Reauthorization Act of 2009, wants to increase rail competition, improve regulatory relief for freight shippers and strengthen federal oversight of the rail industry.
Rockefeller recently spoke to a shippers’ lobbying group in Washington, D.C., calling the railroad industry’s pricing practices “unfair and stifling.”
“We will continue to work toward reform that helps shippers and gives them a fair shake, but that the railroads can live with, too,” Rockefeller said.
Jacksonville, Fla.-based railroad giant CSX Transportation is opposing Rockefeller’s reform measures, pouring millions into lobbying against the bill.
At last week’s rally of freight shippers, Rockefeller said one major railroad — presumably CSX, though he declined to name the company — was refusing to negotiate language in the legislation that would set new rail competition rules and give shippers more power to challenge rail rates, the Journal of Commerce reported.
Last month, CSX’s chairman and president told investors the proposed Senate bill would hamper the rail industry’s reinvestment efforts. A CSX spokesman did not immediately return a phone call Tuesday.
Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate’s Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, said railroads would continue to play an important role in the nation’s economy.
The legislation would overhaul the federal Surface Transportation Board, which regulates railroads.
The board would have new powers, allowing it to initiate its own investigations. The board now can respond only to complaints. The bill lowers the cost of filing complaints from $178,000 to $350.
The federal agency also would become a stronger advocate to help resolve shippers’ concerns, and the bill would increase the board’s scrutiny of railroad mergers. Shippers would be allowed to petition the board for price arbitration.
“For a quarter of a century, I have worked to advance railroad reform legislation that is important for West Virginia shippers who depend on the railroad industry — chemical, coal, steel…,” Rockefeller said in a prepared statement.
“This bill will level the playing field for some of our biggest employers, and that is essential right now.”
Rockefeller’s Senate transportation committee passed the bill, which is expected to be modified before a full Senate vote. A House committee is expected to draft a version of the bill later this year.
Rockefeller said the legislation must “balance the scales” at the Surface Transportation Board.
“At the end of the day, we want to improve shippers’ access to the board, and give the board the authority to put competition first,” he said.