The drive to reform the nation’s freight rail system is picking up steam, and congressional allies want shippers to keep up the pressure.

Despite a multimillion-dollar lobbying blitz by railroad interests, speakers at a March 12 legislative rally in Washington told shippers that they are winning converts for measures to curb monopolistic railroad practices.

“Good bipartisan support is starting to build,” Rep. Charles W. Boustany Jr., R-La., said at Rail Customer Day.

“It doesn’t stop here. You need to hound [representatives] back home in their districts and work with them and push them so we can get these bills done.”

The event, sponsored by Consumers United for Rail Equity, brought together co-ops, grain and chemical producers, regulatory commissioners and shippers to press the case for competition in an industry dominated by a handful of carriers. NRECA CEO Glenn English is chairman of the group.

Specifically, shippers want the Senate to take up S. 772, a bill that would subject railroads to the nation’s antitrust laws. It cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee last September.

Other legislation afoot includes H.R. 1650, the companion House bill to S. 772, and S. 953 and H.R. 2125, which would revamp the Surface Transportation Board, the three-member federal oversight panel considered a hospitable spot for rail interests.

Excerpted from an article by Steven Johnson reprinted from Electric Co-op Today.

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