WASHINGTON — Surface Transportation Board Chairman Martin J. Oberman will retire as of May 10, he announced today (Friday, April 26).
Oberman, a board member since January 2019 and chairman since January 21, 2021, had announced his plans to step down from the board last November, but had not set a date [see “STB chairman Oberman will not seek reappointment,” Trains News Wire, Nov. 17, 2023].
“It has been an honor and a privilege to serve the United States as board member and Chairman of the Surface Transportation Board,” Oberman said in a brief statement released by the board. “I leave government service with the greatest respect for the work of the Board and for the agency staff, who have an unrelenting commitment to public service.”
Oberman said he had informed President Joe Biden of his plans by letter earlier today.
Oberman made the chairmanship a high-profile position, pushing the railroad industry to do better in hauling the nation’s freight and providing frequent criticism of Wall Street’s influence through its focus on short-term results at the expense of the industry’s long-term health. His departure will come the day after the latest skirmish in that ongoing battle, the Norfolk Southern shareholders meeting that will determine the outcome of the proxy fight led by activist investor Ancora Holdings.
“The staff tells me this has been the most active board in the last 20 years,” Oberman said at the RailTrends conference in November, after announcing that he would not seek reappointment. “By the way, some of my friends on the board say we’re an active board. Others of them say we’re an activist board. You pick.”
The board’s most significant action during his tenure was approval of the Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern merger, likely the last union of major railroads. Approved on March 15, 2023, the merger became effective last April. The board also gave the go-ahead to CSX Transportation’s acquisition of Pan Am Railways. Another highly visible decision, approving construction of Utah’s Uinta Basin Railway, was subsequently struck down by a federal appeals court that said environmental approval of the route for crude-oil movement was “arbitrary and capricious” for not fully considering downstream impacts of the decision.
The 79-year-old Oberman, a Chicago attorney, was an alderman in the city from 1975 to 1987 and served on the board of directors for Metra, including a stint as the commuter operator’s chairman from 2014 to 2016.
Your expertise and forth right comments will be sorely missed. You are never afraid to take on any entity when they threaten service to customers or viability of the railroad industry. Enjoy your retirement, you have definitely earned it.