The Strange Case of STB Laryngitis
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle weaved mysteries as no other, with his protagonist detective, Sherlock Holmes, well-tuned to the significance (The Adventure of Silver Blaze) of a watchdog not barking when it should.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle weaved mysteries as no other, with his protagonist detective, Sherlock Holmes, well-tuned to the significance (The Adventure of Silver Blaze) of a watchdog not barking when it should.
WATCHING WASHINGTON, RAILWAY AGE DECEMBER 2023 ISSUE: News item: Surface Transportation Board (STB) Chairperson Martin J. Oberman will not seek renomination to a second term and depart in “early 2024.” Since his
WATCHING WASHINGTON, RAILWAY AGE, NOVEMBER 2023 ISSUE: Napoleon Bonaparte observed that “the torment of precautions often exceeds the dangers to be avoided.” Union Army General George B. McClellan was so tormented that he failed to pursue the Confederate army more aggressively. Most recently, the Surface Transportation Board (STB) appears afflicted with the torment—immobilized to take definitive action to protect captive shippers (those lacking effective transportation alternatives to a single railroad) from rail market power abuse.
WATCHING WASHINGTON, RAILWAY AGE, SEPTEMBER 2023 ISSUE: Deep within the enigma of the federal budget process is a paradoxical scheme to reduce—without actually reducing—red ink. While congressional fiscal hocus pocus is not
WATCHING WASHINGTON, RAILWAY AGE AUGUST 2023 ISSUE: What the Supreme Court giveth, the Supreme Court taketh—its reach and grasp primed to terminate or limit four decades of judicial permissiveness that grants federal regulatory agencies, such as the independent Surface Transportation Board (STB) and Executive Branch Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), license to interpret what is ambiguous or unclear in statutes they administer.
WATCHING WASHINGTON, RAILWAY AGE JUNE 2023 ISSUE: How many crew members are required to operate a freight train safely? The two federal agencies most qualified to answer objectively are in doubt.
“Shockah” as they might say in “Bahsten” about Union Pacific’s (UP) May 3 federal court filing asking that the Surface Transportation Board’s (STB) approval of a Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern marriage creating
Former Rep. Elmer Greinert (Bud) Shuster (R-Pa.), who served in Congress as a House member for almost 30 years, and who is best remembered for his leadership of the Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee, died April 19. He was 91.
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.
Dennis R. Pierce is out as President of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) following his election defeat by Edward A. Hall, who will take office Jan. 1. Although an