President Joe Biden’s July 2021 executive order offered a sneak preview of his administration’s priorities for the freight-rail sector, particularly where it calls on the Surface Transportation Board (STB) to “strengthen regulations pertaining to reciprocal switching agreements.”
The STB is expected to move shortly — possibly as soon as a scheduled March 15 public hearing — to take up rules calling for mandated reciprocal switching, a form of compelled network interoperability, on grounds that they would improve the rail industry’s competitive environment. The regulations likely would be based on a six-year-old notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM), which was, in turn, based on far older data.
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