Railroads complain they don’t need more regulations

Don't impose more regs on us, railroads say

The Trucker News Services

5/20/2008

WASHINGTON — Imposing additional federal regulation on freight railroads would destroy efforts to put more freight on rail and less on the nation's overburdened highways, warned the Association of American Railroads in a letter sent to members of the House Small Business Committee.

“America already has a great rail freight network,” said Edward R. Hamberger, president and CEO of the Association of American Railroads. “We just need more of it, and reregulation won't get us that.”

Hamberger reminded members of the committee earlier this month that “ninety years of increasingly repressive regulation brought the U.S. freight railroad industry to the brink of ruin.”

“But the Staggers Rail Act of 1980 partially deregulated the industry and gave railroads the opportunity to operate like most other businesses — rather than have regulators in Washington tell them what routes to use and what rates to charge,” he said.

Since Staggers, railroads and their customers have benefited enormously. Railroads have reinvested $420 billion back into their systems since 1980. The result has been improved service and safety, and nearly double their traffic volumes — all while lowering average rates by more than 50 percent in inflation-adjusted terms. That means the average rail shipper can move twice as much freight today for the same price as in 1980.

According to a recent Morgan Stanley survey of several hundred rail shippers, customer satisfaction with rail service is at a historical high, with only 21 percent of those surveyed favoring more regulation of the railroad industry.