Transportation

By Randy Gordon, President and Chief Executive Officer Class I freight railroads pushed back strongly against the Surface Transportation Board (STB) pursuing any policies, guidance or investigation of carriers’ demurrage and accessorial charges and practices following the agency’s robust, informative and eye-popping May 22-23 public hearing in Washington. The carriers voiced their objections in supplemental comments submitted to the agency last week in the aftermath of the public hearing, during which the NGFA and several other diverse rail customer organizations and companies presented ... Read More

By Randy Gordon, President and CEO The NGFA on June 6 reiterated its call on the federal Surface Transportation Board (STB) to follow up on its two-day public hearing on May 22-23 by developing specific policies and guidelines to govern Class I railroads’ demurrage and accessorial practices so that they are commercially fair and structured in a way that a rail customer operating efficiently can avoid such charges.  Further, the NGFA urged that the agency’s rules should require that demurrage and accessorial tariffs imposed by carriers are reciprocal – providing the same treatment and ... Read More

By Randy Gordon, President and CEO The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) on May 29 officially withdrew its 2016 proposed rulemaking under which it had signaled its intent to specify train crew sizes appropriate for safe rail operations. Importantly, FRA’s Federal Register notice also stated that its decision that “no regulation of train crew staffing is necessary or appropriate at this time” is intended to “preempt all state laws attempting to regulate train crew staffing in any manner” – in essence, an exercise of federal preemption. FRA said it was aware of nine states having such ... Read More

By Randy Gordon, NGFA President and CEO NGFA urged the federal Surface Transportation Board (STB) to develop policy principles or guidance to discipline Class I rail carrier demurrage and accessorial charges and practices during a two-day public hearing conducted by the agency May 22-23. The NGFA said an outcome of the oversight hearing should be the agency directing the Class I railroads to modify their tariffs and practices to comply with policy principles or guidance that ensure rail carrier tariffs implementing demurrage and accessorial charges are commercially fair, ... Read More

By Bobby Frederick, Director of Legislative Affairs and Public Policy The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development on May 15 approved legislation to increase federal funding for locks, dams and ports by a bipartisan voice vote. The fiscal year 2020 House energy and water development appropriations bill includes $46.6 billion in funding, including $7.36 billion for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – 52 percent more than the president’s budget request. Of particular importance to NGFA members, the legislation allows for full use of the receipts estimated to be ... Read More

By Bobby Frederick, Director of Legislative Affairs and Public Policy The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on May 8 approved legislation (H.R. 2440) that would require the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to fully utilize funds collected in the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund (HMTF) for port dredging and maintenance activities. The HMTF was established in 1986 and is funded through a 0.125 percent tax on the value of imported cargo going through U.S. ports. Congress created the fee with the rationale that beneficiaries of properly dredged ports should contribute to that ... Read More