Review – S 2104 Introduced - Common Carrier Rules

Back in June Sen Baldwin (D,WI) introduced S 2104, the Reliable Rail Service Act of 2025. 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.

The bill is essentially identical to S 2071, the Reliable Rail Service Act, that was introduced by Baldwin in June of 2023. No other action was taken on the bill in the 118^th Congress.

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.

 

For more details about the provisions of the bill see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-2104-introduced-common-carrier - subscription required.