Former STB Member Owen Dies
Gus A. Owen, a Republican Member of the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) and its successor Surface Transportation Board (STB) from Oct. 4, 1994 to Dec. 31, 1998, died Dec. 17, 2022 at age 89.
Interstate Commerce Commission
STB Sets 4Q22 Rail Cost Adjustment Factor
The Surface Transportation Board (STB) has adopted for fourth-quarter 2022 the rail cost adjustment factor (RCAF), defined as “an index formulated to represent changes in railroad costs incurred by the nation’s largest railroads over a specified period of time.”
Commentary
Muddling the Message With Staggers
Surely you remember the Ash-Pan Act, named after Sen. Ash and Rep. Pan. In fact, it was a 1908 railroad safety law—its name identifying a steam locomotive appliance.
Commentary
Impeachment Saved ICC/STB Independence
While talk of Presidential impeachment is difficult to avoid, probably few can recite how the impeachment of a federal judge in 1912 helped to secure the independence of the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) and its Surface Transportation Board (STB) successor.
Commentary
STB: Heed Seriously the Yak Fat Ghost
On 74 acres in central Virginia, there graze for commercial production some two-dozen Himalayan yaks—a largely fat-free, shaggy, handlebar-horned and oft cantankerous animal first imported to North America during the 19th century. If the connection of yak and its fat to transportation economic regulation is not obvious, blame your youth, as more than half a century has passed since the Great Yak Fat Caper of 1965 entered railroad lore—a dirty-trickster’s fraud now indelibly stained on the Interstate Commerce Commission’s (ICC) reputation, and, by association, its Surface Transportation Board (STB) successor.
New rail study: “Policy must tolerate market power”
For more than three decades, railroad regulators have used the same method to determine which shippers are captive; and, if so, to determine a remedy to limit railroad market power and assure rates charged captive shippers are reasonable.
STB decision upholds federal preemption of state statutes
The Surface Transportation Board has ruled that claims filed against Norfolk Southern in certain Virginia state court lawsuits are preempted by federal law. STB, in “NORFOLK SOUTHERN RAILWAY COMPANY—PETITION FOR DECLARATORY ORDER” (Docket No. FD 35701), granted NS’s petition on Nov. 4, 2013.
Commentary
Remembering Warren Rudman—and a Greek tragedy at the ICC
Even The New York Times, the nation’s newspaper of record, missed, in its lengthy obituary, the absorbing connection between railroads and former Republican Sen. Warren Rudman of New Hampshire, who died Nov. 19 at age 82.