Download or read book Freight Railroads Industry Health Has Improved but Concerns about Competition Capacity Should be Addressed written by and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Freight Railroads written by United States Government Accountability Office and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-09-13 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Staggers Rail Act deregulated the freight rail industry, relying on competition to set rates, and allowed for differential pricing (charging higher rates to those more dependent on rail). The act gave the Surface Transportation Board (STB) authority to develop remedies for shippers"captive" to one railroad and set a threshold for shippers to apply for rate relief. GAO was asked to review (1) changes in the railroad industry since the Staggers Rail Act, including rates and competition; (2) STB actions to address competition and captivity concerns and alternatives that could be considered; and (3) freight demand and capacity projections and potential federal policy responses. GAO examined STB data, conducted interviews, and held an expert panel.
Download or read book Freight Railroads written by United States. Government Accountability Office and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 89 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Freight Railroads written by U S Government Accountability Office (G and published by BiblioGov. This book was released on 2013-06 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is an independent agency that works for Congress. The GAO watches over Congress, and investigates how the federal government spends taxpayers dollars. The Comptroller General of the United States is the leader of the GAO, and is appointed to a 15-year term by the U.S. President. The GAO wants to support Congress, while at the same time doing right by the citizens of the United States. They audit, investigate, perform analyses, issue legal decisions and report anything that the government is doing. This is one of their reports.
Download or read book Freight Railroads written by U. S. Government Accountability Office ( and published by BiblioGov. This book was released on 2013-06 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over 25 years ago, Congress transformed federal freight rail transportation policy. At that time, after almost 100 years of economic regulation, the railroad industry was in serious economic decline, with rising costs, losses, and bankruptcies. In response, Congress passed the Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act of 1976 and the Staggers Rail Act of 1980. Together, these pieces of legislation substantially deregulated the railroad industry. Since the passage of the Staggers Rail Act in 1980, we have issued several reports on the freight railroad industry. In October 2006, we issued our most recent report on the freight rail industry. The objectives of this report were to determine (1) the changes that have occurred in the freight railroad industry since the enactment of the Staggers Rail Act, including changes in rail rates and competition in the industry; (2) the actions STB has taken to address concerns about competition and captivity and any alternative approaches that could be considered to address remaining concerns; and (3) the projections for freight traffic demand over the next 15 to 25 years, the freight railroad industry's ability to meet that demand, and potential federal policy responses. Among other things, this report describes the significant changes that have taken place in the railroad industry and reports that from 1985 through 2004, rates generally decreased, but nominal grain rates increased 9 percent. We also found that, on some routes, the amount of grain traveling at rates significantly above the threshold for rate relief had increased since 1985.
Download or read book Freight Railroads Updated Information on Rates and Competition Issues written by JayEtta Z. Hecker and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2007 with total page 30 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Freight Railroads Updated Information on rates and Other Industry Trends written by and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on with total page 30 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Economics Service and Capacity in the Freight Railroad Industry written by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Case for Continued Light Touch Regulation of Freight Railroads written by Tracy Miller and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In response to concerns about the lack of competition and the resulting high rail rates, the Biden administration has proposed mandating reciprocal switching, which provides shippers access to competing railroads. The administration also has advocated for final offer rate review as an affordable way for small shippers to challenge rates they perceive to be too high. This paper explores these and related proposals for improving the way the Surface Transportation Board protects shippers from being charged unreasonable freight rates.For railroads to have the capacity to compete with other transportation modes, particularly trucking, and have the incentives to invest and provide a cost effective and environmentally friendly alternative to shipping goods, they must earn adequate profits. Therefore, it is important that regulatory reform continue the light touch of existing rate regulation. Mandated reciprocal switching could raise costs and create uncertainty that might reduce railroad profitability, which discourages investment. However, other changes to regulatory policy, such as final offer arbitration or final offer rate review for a trial period, would likely have little adverse effect on railroad profitability while giving more protection to small shippers from excessive rates than the current rate regulation.
Download or read book Freight Rail Transportation written by Elizabeth Pinkston and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 70 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Freight Railroads written by JayEtta Z. Hecker and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 27 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Freight Rail Service written by Science And Tran Committee on Commerce and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2015-05-13 with total page 94 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The rail industry looks far different than it did 30 years ago. Competition in the industry has decreased. Before enactment of the Staggers Act in 1980, there were approximately 40 large railroad companies. Today that figure would be closer to seven, so competition is down, and profits are up. In passing the Staggers Act, Congress recognized the need for a robust freight rail system. That law made sweeping regulatory changes which gave the railroad industry an opportunity to improve its finances and the ability to compete against other transportation modes. In that regard, the Staggers Act has worked; the railroad industry got the capital, but they haven't necessarily used it properly. For several months now, the agricultural, coal, chemical, and automotive industries, among others, have been experiencing serious service delays on rail, sometimes on the order of months. Whether it has been extreme winter weather, a surge in Bakken crude oil production, a recovering economy, or a combination of factors, we must do more to move our grain to market, coal to power plants, automobiles to consumers, and passengers to their destinations than we currently are.
Download or read book Rail Competition and Service written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 780 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Railroad Antitrust Enforcement Act of 2009 written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Courts and Competition Policy and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Surface Transportation Board and Regulations Related to the Freight Railroad Industry written by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety, and Security and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Railroad Competitiveness written by U S Government Accountability Office (G and published by BiblioGov. This book was released on 2013-06 with total page 46 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the principal factors affecting the railroad industry's ability to compete with other transportation modes for intercity freight, focusing on how federal laws: (1) affect railroad labor costs; and (2) influence the railroads' competitive position. GAO found that: (1) reduced federal regulation has given railroads greater freedom to competitively price their services, but as the railroads have become more competitive, so have their competitors in the trucking and barge industries; (2) the Railroad Retirement Act of 1937, the Federal Employers' Liability Act, and the Railway Labor Act of 1926, which govern railroad employee benefits and labor relations, have resulted in higher overall labor costs; (3) if railroads could reduce their labor costs, they would be in a better position to competitively price their services and compete for intercity freight; (4) publicly financed interstate highways and waterways give the trucking and barge industries a competitive price advantage over railroads, since freight railroads maintain their own rights of way with minimal federal assistance, while trucks and barges use rights of way that the public helps to fund; and (5) rail rates could become increasingly attractive compared with truck or barge rates, if all modes operated under the same labor laws and were equally responsible for their rights of way.
Download or read book Current Financial State of the Class I Freight Rail Industry written by John Rockefeller and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2011-06 with total page 15 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Staggers Rail Act of 1980 allowed freight railroads (FR) to get rid of unprofitable lines and to consolidate their operations. It also allowed the FR to charge lower rates to their customers who operated in a competitive environment, and higher rates to customers who were captive to one FR carrier for transportation service. This review of the Class I FR's recent financial results shows that the Staggers Act's goal of restoring financial stability to the U.S. rail system has been achieved and has produced a rail renaissance. The four Class I railroads that today dominate the U.S. rail shipping market are achieving returns on revenue and operating ratios that rank them among the most profitable bus. in the U.S. Charts and tables. A print on demand report.
