(The following appeared on the Progressive Railroading website on May 5, 2010.)
Today, rail shipper representatives and congressmen will rally on Capitol Hill during “Rail Customer Day” to draw attention to rail competition and rates.
Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) and Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), Consumers United for Rail Equity Executive Director Robert Szabo and numerous rail shipper officials plan to urge Congress to enact the Surface Transportation Board Reauthorization Act of 2009 (S.2889) and Railroad Antitrust Enforcement Act of 2009 (S.146/H.R. 233), which propose to increase rail competition, such as by expanding the size and oversight authority of the Surface Transportation Board.
Rail Customer Day organizers aim: to “fight longstanding imbalances in rail competition and monopoly powers that allow railroad companies to unfairly increase their profits on the backs of captive shippers,” they said in an event announcement. “Railroad monopolies’ abusive pricing power” is having a negative impact on shippers, businesses and farmers, organizers believe.
During Rail Customer Day, attendees plan to highlight how “railroad monopolies” force consumers to pay artificially high prices for goods and services; that a new U.S. Department of Agriculture report includes “dramatic findings” about the cost to consumers from a lack of rail competition; and how Congress can provide debt-free economic stimulus and “restore fairness to railroad pricing” by removing railroads’ monopoly protections, organizers said.