WASHINGTON — The Surface Transportation Board has released details on its previously announced hearing on proposed reciprocal switching regulations, to be held March 15-16.
The hearing will begin at 9:30 a.m. each day at the board’s headquarters in Washington, and will be streamed online on the board website. The board will announce no later than March 1 if it has determined that the hearing should be held virtually.The hearing will address regulations proposed by the board in July 2016 which would allow the STB to require railroads to establish switching arrangements by competing companies for certain shippers. The competing company, which would not otherwise physically reach shipper, pays the host railroad a switching fee, but then is able to offer a single-line rate to compete with the original railroad’s rate.
While the board received extensive comments following the original notice of proposed rulemaking, the STB said in a press release that since that time, “there have been significant changes in and affecting the freight rail industry. Commenters may now have additional or modified views on the effects of and/or need for the proposed regulations. Interested persons are invited and encouraged to engage in this public hearing to address these issues and any other matters relevant to this proceeding.”
The board said it will halt ex parte communications — those without all parties present — as of Jan. 24 to allow those parties and other interested individuals to address summaries of such meetings. Those wishing to speak at the hearing should notify the board by Jan. 27, 2022; written comments should be submitted by Feb. 14, 2022.
The full hearing decision is available here.
This is one of three significant hearings scheduled by the STB in the first quarter of 2022. A hearing on the CSX-Pan Am merger is set for Jan. 13, and Jan. 14, if necessary [see “Federal regulators schedule public hearings …,” Trains News Wire, Dec. 10, 2021]. A hearing on the Amtrak request to require CSX and Norfolk Southern to allow Gulf Coast passenger service is set for Feb. 15 (and Feb. 16, if necessary).
