WASHINGTON — The Surface Transportation is proposing to amend its emergency service regulations to allow immediate relief for shippers in situations requiring such action, including clarifying that the board may act on its own initiative to require emergency service.
“The rail service challenges shippers are currently experiencing are amplified by certain recent conditions but are not new,” STB Chairman Martin J. Oberman said in a press release. “For several years the Board has gathered information showing that the existing emergency service rules are too cumbersome to be of use to shippers in need of immediate relief. This proposed rule would make it possible for a shipper to receive relief in a short but reasonable amount of time during an emergency.” Oberman said the board needs to consider new approaches “not only for the customers’ benefit, but for the well-being of the nation’s economy and all consumers.”
The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking issued Friday comes ahead of a hearing set for April 26-27 to address rail service issues, which the board said in its notice include “tight car supply and unfilled car orders, delays in transportation for carload and bulk traffic, increased origin dwell time for released unit trains, missed switches, and ineffective customer assistance.
“Such service issues,” the board says in the notice, “could result in an increased need for emergency board action to meet the needs of the public.”
Comments on the board’s proposal are due May 23, with reply comments due by June 6. “Considering the consistent and pervasive nature of these service issues,” the press release says, “the board is limiting the comment period to 30 days and the reply period to 15 days.”
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