Canadian Transportation Agency seeks feedback on regulated interswitching rates

The Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) late last month launched consultations on its approach to setting regulated interswitching rates.

The CTA is inviting key stakeholders to share their views to help ensure the rates are compensatory, consider the long-term investment needs of railroads, and are commercially fair and reasonable to all parties, agency officials said in a press release.

The CTA plans to hold bilateral consultation sessions from July 12 to Aug. 20. Written submissions are due by Aug. 21.

Prior to participating in a consultation, stakeholders can review a discussion paper that focuses on such issues as developing interswitching rates for short lines, regional and commodity specific interswitching rates, interswitching zones up to 19 miles and railroads' long-term investment needs.

The paper also addresses volume discount rate categories, contributions to fixed costs, productivity factors, and the transparency of regulated interswitching rates and methodologies.