The U.S. Senate on June 19, 2015 passed S.808, the Surface Transportation Board Reauthorization Act of 2015, which would authorize appropriations for STB programs, establish the STB as a government agency independent of the Department of Transportation, and authorize other key changes in the agency’s operations.
Paint former Surface Transportation Board (STB) Chairman Dan Elliott a darling of the National Industrial Transportation League (NITL), a shipper organization asking the STB to require—through so-called open access—that two Class I railroads be available to compete for freight carloads even if the tracks of only one railroad serve a shipper’s facility.