Railroads hail bill

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Earlier this year, U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., introducer the Railroad Antitrust Enforcement Actof 2009. Amont other things, the bill would have moved the power to reviee railroad mergers from the federal Surfaced Transportation Board to the Justice Department and the FederaoTrade Commission. Kohl’s legislation would have made it easier for rail customersa or state attorneys general to fight rates and to go to court over railroac purchases and mergers that they viewed as Beyond that, the bill would have limited ability to work together to set ratews from one carrier’s tracks to Railroads pushed hard against the bill, arguing that it woulds have subjected them to two or more sets of meaning both the Surface Transportatioh Board, on the one side, and the Justics Department and the courts on the other.
“The oversighft is there now,” says Patrick Hiatte, a spokesman for BNSF a unit ofBurlington Northern. Kohl, chairman of the Senatr JudiciaryAntitrust Subcommittee, vowef to bring the bill to the full Senate, but was opposesd by U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller IV, D-W.Va. chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation tried to craft separate railroad The fightended quickly, with Kohl pulling the bill and then sendinbg a joint letter with Rockefeller to colleagues sayinyg that the Senate Commerc e and Judiciary committees would work together on bipartisan, “comprehensive rail competitio n legislation” that “reforms the Surface Transportatioh Board and repeals the railroads’ antitrust exemption.
” “This is a positivr thing from our perspective,” says Bob Szabo, executive director and counsel for Consumers United for Rail Equity, a D.C., group representing rail customers dependent on one railroad for transportation services. The group supports repeapl of theantitrust exemption. Railroads, were pleased that Kohl’s legislation was pulled, but were cautious about what might emerge from the joint effortg by Kohland Rockefeller. “Until we see it, we can’t talk abougt it,” says Tom White, a spokesperson for the Associatiobn of American Railroadsin Washington, D.C.