An active Surface Transportation Board and ongoing issues to fully restore rail network capacity are among the issues that industry stakeholders are eyeing in the new year.
Transport Canada is considering making the data collection of rail service metrics permanent — a move the Forest Products Association of Canada supports.
The board held a two-day hearing on reciprocal switching to help it determine how it should move forward.
The Surface Transportation Board will hold a two-day hearing on reciprocal switching next week. Here is some background on the issue.
Congress should fund the Surface Transportation Board, agreed panelists at a U.S. House hearing on the board’s funding reauthorization. But they disagree on what STB’s role should be in regulating the freight railroads.
Access to interchanges, treatment of American grain shippers compared to Canadian ones and service impacts weigh on shippers’ minds as they evaluate the proposed merger between Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern.
FreightWaves chatted with former STB Chairman Dan Elliott on the history of the board’s relationship with reciprocal switching and why the board should still review it today.
Economist Steve Pociask opines on why he thinks the Surface Transportation Board should tread carefully when deciding how to proceed with the issue of reciprocal switching.
The board has said it plans to seek input on the environmental impacts of the CP-KCS merger; CSX’s planned acquisition of Pan Am Railways; Amtrak’s plan to restore its Gulf Coast service; and reciprocal switching.
Industry observers grapple with the complexities of implementing reciprocal switching on U.S. rail networks.
