WASHINGTON — The Surface Transportation Board will hear from more than three dozen participants during its two-day hearing next month regarding recent trends and strategies for growth in freight railroad traffic.
The hearing, set to begin at 9:30 a.m. on Sept. 16 and 17 in the board’s hearing room, will be livestreamed on the STB’s YouTube channel.
The board called the hearing last month. It requested that executives from the six Class I railroads attend the hearing, and invited testimony from industry analysts, other railroads, shippers, suppliers, and rail labor.
“While the Board recognizes that some shifts in volume may not be primarily within the control of rail carriers, the Board has observed that over the past ten years carload volumes have not grown, and have in fact decreased,” the STB said in announcing the hearing. “The Board wishes to explore how industry participants are strategizing and innovating to reverse this recent trend and achieve freight rail growth. The Board is also interested in shippers’ plans or desire for future use of rail, factors that may affect shipment decisions, and what rail carriers are doing and can do to increase shippers’ use of rail. This hearing presents a chance to discuss opportunities for growth in the freight rail industry, as well as the challenges and effects associated with a failure to grow.”
Thirty-eight companies, associations, and individuals have asked to participate in the hearing. Requests to testify were due at the STB yesterday; written testimony is due by Friday.
Among those notifying the board of their intent to participate:
Railroads
— BNSF Railway Chief Marketing Officer Tom Williams and Chief Legal Officer Jill Mulligan
— Canadian National Chief Field Operations Officer Derek Taylor and Chief Strategy Officer Patrick Lortie
— Canadian Pacific Kansas City Chief Marketing Officer John Brooks
— CSX CEO Joe Hinrichs and Chief Commercial Officer Kevin Boone
— Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw
— Union Pacific Executive Vice President of Marketing and Sales Kenny Rocker
— American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association: Executives from Sierra Northern Railway, R.J. Corman, Iowa Interstate Railroad, New York & Atlantic Railway, and Genesee & Wyoming are scheduled to appear along with ASLRRA’s top legal officer
— Association of American Railroads CEO Ian Jefferies and Chief Economist Rand Ghayad
Shipper Trade Groups
— Alliance for Chemical Distribution
— American Chemistry Council
— American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers
— Freight Rail Customer Alliance and National Coal Transportation Association
— Growth Energy, which represents biofuel producers
— National Grain and Feed Association
— National Industrial Transportation League
— National Mining Association
— Private Railcar Food and Beverage Association
— The Fertilizer Institute
Suppliers
— Half53
— Hum Industrial Technology
— OptiFuel Systems
— Parallel Systems
— Railway Supply Institute
— Solutionary Rail, an advocacy group that explores rail transportation and the public interest.
Lobby Groups
— CPAC Foundation’s Center for Regulatory Freedom
— Washington Legal Foundation
Rail Labor
— Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen
— Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division/IBT; Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen; International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers; SMART-TD Mechanical Division; International Brotherhood of Boilermakers; National Conference of Firemen and Oilers; Transport Workers Union of America
— SMART-TD
— Transportation Trades Division of the AFL-CIO
Wall Street Analysts
— Loop Capital Markets
— Wolfe Research
Consultants
— CNJ Rail Corp.
— Highroad Consulting
— Oliver Wyman, LLC
And when there are proposals to create growth like the 84 mile Uinta Basin Railway in Eastern Utah and the Warner Branch reactivation in Tooele County, UT just West of Salt Lake City, why is the STB so slow to stand up for its charter rather than keel over in fear of environmentalist? In these two instances there was guaranteed rail growth but once radical environmental groups started blowing their trumpets and threatening law suits, the STB turned tail and hid from their duty. If rail growth is to occur, the STB MUST BE the primary advocate for such efforts or they are nothing more than the “complaint department” for those who want their way no matter the cost to the economy and industry as a whole. After all, we can’t expect Mayor Pete to do anymore than photo ops at locations he flew to!
Where are the hedge funds? They certainly pull the levers, shouldn’t they be there?
One only has to observe the development of large distribution centers lacking a railroad link within miles to understand why rail carload volume is on a downward slope.
Subsidized trucking has been steadily growing, aided by tax dollars. No trucking company has to make investments in roadway design, property acquisition,
logistics, expansion, etc. as the railroads do. All they have to do is pay their taxes (but not property taxes) and reap the benefits. We all see the results.
You are correct. I live in the SLC area, and all of the new industrial warehouses being built have little to no railroad infrastructure nearby. Patriot Rail has started to invest in our area, which is making a significant difference. WE NEED MORE SHORT LINES AND REGIONALS. Let the big roads carry long distance what the short lines create in carload traffic. That is if the Class 1’s are even capable of doing that.
Exactly as I said above. Real growth (rail miles) will not happen as long as the STB is just a facilitator of industry insiders only looking to profit off of consulting contracts!
This is all a bunch of silly nonsense. Note that not a single intermodal marketing company is shown as attending. What about UPS and FedEx, both large intermodal users. And of course, the epitome of the 21st century economy Amazon???
Do not see a single steamship line planning to attend.
These are “old” economy companies. Where are the automakers and auto parts suppliers? What about TTX?
Agreed, I guess this will just be another badgering session….
Well, the article did state the focus was on carload, not intermodal, as we all know loose manifest traffic has been on a steady decline for years. Due often to railroad disinterest (inability?) to handle and profitability dictates from Wall Street, while intermodal continues a general upward increase. And while trucking enjoys some unfair advantages in cost structure, the rails enjoy their own through their monopolistic nature. Just listen to what the shippers will all say. Hell, they can’t even take care of the easy-to-service bulk shippers nowadays. Except for intermodal and bulk, railroads haven’t been relevant in the transportation market for years, and keep losing ground. While the government is notorious for dog-and-pony shows, in this case I feel some more balance is really needed before all the carload disappears, including a railroad refocus on their own notorious service. Your mileage may vary…
Injuns
JOEL GILMORE —- Loose car railroading has been in decline for our lifetime. Around 1984 – 1985, I was talking to an engineer at an electric utility in Michigan. There was a siding at the utility’s yard, completely inactive. Everything came by truck. “The railroads can’t deliver the product anymore,” the engineer told me.
I could understand transformers, which are time-sensitive, custom-made and expensive. But utility poles? A cheap, heavy undifferentiated commodity hauled cross-country, from Georgia or South Caolina to Michigan. Delivered by truck. That was decades ago.