After a two-week delay caused by Hurricane Irma, a “listening session” called by the Surface Transportation Board took place Wednesday, October 11, with shippers providing example after example of CSX Railway service problems causing plant shutdowns and raising shipping costs.
NITL Chair Mary Pileggi, Executive Director Jennifer Hedrick, and General Counsel Karyn Booth attended the hearing, and Pileggi submitted comments on behalf of League members. The comments criticized CSX for failing to notify its customers of forthcoming operational changes and to coordinate those changes with its customers. The comments also noted that CSX will probably suffer little for its actions because it operates in “an oligopoly with many captive customers” rather than “a market that is robustly competitive”—a reference to the competitive switching rulemaking (EP 711) that is languishing before the STB.
CSX CEO Hunter Harrison addressed the Board and the session’s attendees, strongly defending his company’s strategy of “precision scheduled railroading” and attributing the service delays primarily to employees failing to implement the plan properly. The STB’s two commissioners, Acting Chair Ann Begeman and Vice Chair Deb Miller, asked Harrison questions during his hour-long remarks, including questions about his failure to participate in an industry work group that is collaborating on ways to help address Chicago rail traffic issues.
Read more information about the listening session here. Testimony from all session participants will be posted on the STB website in Docket EP 742.
