Review - S 2071 Introduced – Common Carrier Rules

Last month, Sen Baldwin (D,WI) introduced S 2071, the Reliable Rail Service Act. The bill would amend 49 USC 11101, expanding the railroad common carrier requirements to provide transportation upon a reasonable request to include requirements for ‘timely, efficient, and reliable rail service’. There is no funding provided in the legislation.

Moving Forward

Baldwin is a member of the Senate Commerce, Science and Technology Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. This means that there may be sufficient influence to see the bill considered in Committee. Railroads are going to oppose this expansion of their common carrier responsibilities based upon their long-standing assertion that they are the only ones that have enough service situational awareness to establish what delivery schedules are reasonable. How that opposition would break down into votes in Committee and ultimately on the floor of the Senate is difficult to quantify. I suspect that any votes would be somewhat bipartisan and very close.

Commentary

This bill is an outgrowth of the continuing issues that shippers and receivers have had with railroad services. This bill is not going to solve the problem, but it does provide the STB with some additional tools to work out a solution.

 

For more details about the provisions of this bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-2071-introduced - subscription required.