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Politico's Morning Transportation discusses a CEI led coalition letter asking Congress to look into railroad regulators' proposed price controls. 

A coalition of free-market groups is urging lawmakers in a letter today to look into the Surface Transportation Board’s proposed rule to change its standards for permitting shippers to pursue reciprocal switching, which is when one freight railroad moves goods to an interchange where another railroad takes over the rail cars for a fee. The organizations are asking the House Transportation and Senate Commerce committees and their rail panels “to investigate the STB’s conduct and prevent its unlawful attempt to push the U.S. railroad industry back into the economic dark ages.”

The missive comes a day after the comment period for the rule closed. The proposal has stirred up passions among freights, which oppose it as an attempt to re-regulate the railroads, and shippers that say they’re bearing the brunt of high rail rates and shoddy service. STB has been weighing whether to regulate the issue for years.

Ouch: “If this is the caliber of decision-making now emanating from the STB, perhaps Congress should reconsider the need for this agency altogether,” the coalition, spearheaded by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, sniped in the letter.

Read the full article at Politico's Morning Transportation.