NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE

O
n March 15, the Surface Transportation Board (STB), the economic regulator of railroads, will begin a hearing about a new regulation on freight railroads that would introduce new inefficiencies to supply chains. The regulation concerns “reciprocal switching,” the practice of allowing one carrier to use another carrier’s tracks, and it would give government bureaucrats more power to determine who gets to use railroads.

Reciprocal switching already occurs based on private agreements between railroads. But Democrats, first under Obama and now under Biden, have wanted to give the government more power to determine switching agreements in the name of promoting competition. (For …