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Thirteen shipper groups recently sent a letter to the four senators who sponsor the Surface Transportation Board Reauthorization Act of 2009 (S. 2889) stressing that the “bipartisan compromise bill” addresses captive rail shippers’ concerns by increasing access to the STB and making the board “more robust” via rail policy updates that reflect the rail industry’s current needs.

Dated Feb. 25, the letter was sent to Sen. John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), who drafted the bill and chairs the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee; the committee’s ranking minority member Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-Texas); Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who chairs the Subcommittee on Surface Transportation; and the subcommittee’s ranking minority member Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.).

The letter is signed by the Alliance for Rail Competition; American Chemistry Council; American Forest & Paper Association; American Public Power Association; Consumers United for Rail Equity; Consumer Federation of America; Edison Electric Institute; The Fertilizer Institute; National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates; National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners; National Grain and Feed Association; National Industrial Transportation League; and National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.

“We appreciate the fact that despite the long intractability of the controversy over the proper role of competition and regulation in the freight rail industry, you devoted 10 months of effort to develop this legislation through a process that provided a fair opportunity for both rail customers and railroads to have extensive input regarding the issues addressed in the bill,” the letter states. “Rail customers have not gotten everything we want in S. 2889. However, [it’s] a significant improvement over the status quo for many rail customers, and it provides much-needed reform at the STB.”

For example, S.2889 would increase competition by requiring major railroads to quote “bottleneck rates” and “terminal switching rates,” enable parties to challenge existing and future paper barriers, and increase the STB’s scrutiny of future railroad mergers, the shipper groups wrote. In addition, the bill would improve access to the STB by lowering shippers’ filing fees for a rate complaint, allowing the board’s simplified rate dispute methods to be used by more shippers and for larger cases.

The shipper groups “strongly support” the inclusion of antitrust provisions from the Railroad Antitrust Enforcement Act of 2009 (S. 146) in S.2889 before the bill is considered by the full Senate. They plan to continue working with the commerce committee and others in the Senate as S. 2889 moves to the floor.

“If enacted, the bill will diminish the current controversy between the major freight railroads and their customers,” the letter states. “The STB will be more proactive regarding rail customer concerns and will have the resources it needs to promote a national freight rail system that works for the freight railroads, their customers, consumers and the nation.”