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Although the airline, railroad, telecommunications, and electric power industries are at very different stages in adjusting to regulatory reform, each industry faces the same critical public policy question: Are policymakers taking appropriate steps to stimulate competition or are they turning back the clock by slowing the process of deregulation? This volume addresses that issue and identifies the next steps that policymakers should take to enhance public welfare in the provision of these services. Each chapter identifies the central policy issues that have arisen in each industry as it undergoes transformation to a deregulated environment. The authors reveal the flaws in the residual regulations and make the case for faster and more comprehensive deregulation. A concluding chapter identifies how interest groups continue to exert influence on regulatory agencies and on Congress, potentially undermining deregulation. The papers included here were initially presented in December 1999 at a conference sponsored and organized by the AEI–Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies.
This Guidebook will aid states in developing public-private partnerships with private freight railroads to permit operation of passenger services over shared-use rail corridors. The Guidebook should encourage the broad acceptance of improved principles, processes, and methods to support agreements on access, allocation of operation and maintenance costs, capacity allocation, operational issues, future responsibilities for infrastructure improvements, and other fundamental issues that will affect the ultimate success of shared-use passenger and freight agreements between public and private railroad stakeholders.
"TRB Special Report 318: Modernizing Freight Rail Regulation examines the future role of the Surface Transportation Board (STB) in overseeing and regulating the service levels and rate offerings of railroads. This congressionally-requested report recommends approaches to resynchronize a regulatory program that has become outdated. The U.S. freight railroad industry has modernized and has become financially stable since the Staggers Rail Act of 1980, but the study committee finds that some of the industry's economic regulations have not kept pace and should be replaced with practices suited to today's freight rail system. The study committee finds that more appropriate, reliable, and usable procedures are needed for resolving rate disputes. The committee recommends that Congress should prepare to repeal the formula for eligibility for rate relief and should direct the U.S. Department of Transportation to develop a screening tool that compares disputed rates with rates charged in competitive rail markets. Current methods make artificial and arbitrary estimates of the cost of rail shipping. Adjudication can cost millions of dollars, and some cases have taken years to resolve, deterring shippers with smaller claims. Simplified methods that are economically valid and practical have yet to be introduced. The study committee recommends that STB replace hearings on the reasonableness of rates with arbitration hearings that compel faster, more economical resolutions. Merger reviews should be transferred to antitrust agencies, according to the committee, which also recommends that STB collect and analyze shipment-level data on service quality in overseeing the railroads' response to common carrier service obligations."