Railroad Interchange Dispute Lands At The STB

Paul R. Hitchcock is a Senior Policy Advisor in our Jacksonville office.

As railroads across the country continue to feel intense pressure to drive down costs and operate more efficiently, opportunities abound for friction to develop between participants in the rail network. Because railroads operate largely on only their own tracks, they must exchange rail cars with each other to move freight from a shipper located on the tracks of one to a receiver located on the tracks of another. Just where and how that "interchange" of freight cars is to occur has traditionally been worked out by negotiations between the two connecting railroads – often through compromise, but occasionally through litigation.