Multiple organizations including the National Industrial Transportation League (NITL), BNSF Railway Company, the Freight Rail Customer Alliance (FRCA) and National Coal Transportation Association (NCTA), the Transportation Division of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART-TD), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the American Chemistry Council (ACC), have provided comments on the Surface Transportation Board’s (STB) Jan. 7, 2026, Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to repeal its regulations on 49 C.F.R. Part 144, “Intramodal Rail Competition,” and to restore reciprocal switching.
NITL
In a letter (download below), dated March 10, 2026, to the STB, the NITL commended the Board on its proposal to repeal Part 1144, which will “modernize its regulatory framework by removing burdensome and ineffective regulations,” according to the League.
“Part 1144 imposes unreasonable burdens on shippers whose facilities are captive to a single railroad and who seek to use the reciprocal switching statute to access a second railroad to obtain competitive, efficient, and reliable freight rail transportation. Removing Part 1144 will create new opportunities for competition in the rail industry to be a key mechanism to improve rail service and solve freight rail challenges for the benefit of U.S. manufacturers, farmers, distributors of raw materials, and the American economy,” NITL wrote in the letter.
BNSF Railway Company
In a letter (download below), dated March 10, 2026, to the STB, BNSF explained that it “does not oppose the repeal of competitive access rules (CARs).”
“The statutory scheme that will guide future cases is consistent with BNSF’s long-held belief that Board intervention should be limited to instances of market failure, while also ensuring that in those instances where Board regulation is warranted, the remedies must be accessible, well-tailored, and effective for all stakeholders,” the Class I wrote. “Moreover, this statutory focus on market dynamics makes it imperative that the Board consider all relevant competitive forces when considering future requests for competitive access. BNSF further notes that this proposal comes at a pivotal moment for competition in the railroad industry, as Union Pacific Railroad Company (UP) and Norfolk Southern Railway Company (NS) seek to consolidate an unprecedented amount of market power through their proposed merger. For reasons that BNSF will address in the merger proceeding, the long- 2 term competitive harms of that transaction pose a significant threat to the U.S. economy and the American consumer. Nothing in the NPRM alters the Board’s responsibility to prevent those harms in addressing the proposed merger.”
FRCA/NCTA
The FRCA and NCTA in a March 10, 2026, letter to the STB, commended the Board for issuing its proposal.
“The requirement in the regulations to demonstrate anticompetitive conduct before being able to obtain reciprocal switching and through route prescription to attain the benefits of competition has proved insurmountable in practice, so much so as to have a profound chilling effect on efforts to pursue what could prove to be a very valuable form of competition. Enhanced competition is needed for the benefit of not only for shippers, who have on average faced real rate increases (as measured against the GPD-IPD) for over two decades, but also for the railroads, whose excessive exploitation of their market power has led to stagnating and falling volumes over the past two decades,” the organizations wrote in the letter (download below).
Notwithstanding these concerns, FRCA and NCTA said that they welcome the proposal as a “much needed and long-awaited correction to the harm inflicted by the Midtec approach.” While there may be challenges, the proposal, the organizations wrote, “adheres to the statutory language and has the potential to result in meaningful competition, lower rates, and improved service, none of which can be said of the status quo.”
SMART-TD
SMART-TD, in its March 10, 2026, letter to the STB (download below), provided comments in strong support of the Board’s NPRM to repeal 49 C.F.R. Part 1144 and to restore reciprocal switching determinations to a “case-by-case analysis consistent with the Staggers Rail Act.”
“Competition strengthens industries. It strengthens service. And it strengthens the workforce that keeps the nation’s freight and passenger rail systems operating safely and efficiently. The existing regulatory framework has shielded rail monopolies for the past 4 decades. It is time to remove that shield.
“SMART-TD urges the Board to finalize this rule and restore reciprocal switching to its proper statutory footing,” wrote the union, which represents approximately 100,000 transportation employees, including active rail members working in all railroad operating crafts such as engineers, conductors, trainmen, switchmen, hostlers, and yardmasters.
USDA
“Repealing Part 1144 is the right first step in making statutory relief available and finding solutions that better serve the public interest, or that correct for inadequate competition,” the organization wrote in a March 10, 2026, letter to the STB (download below). “Without any replacement regulation, petitions would be evaluated case by case. Such an approach may work well, provided the Board makes all relevant information public and places any necessary evidentiary burdens on the party most able to meet the burden. However, USDA encourages the Board to continue judicious monitoring of shippers’ use of reciprocal switching. If, for example, shippers continue to cite high rates or poor service—and still do not bring cases before the Board—STB may need to provide additional regulatory clarity as to eligibility, such as the guidelines it proposed in 2016.”
ACC
The Anticompetitive Conduct standard adopted in Part 1144, the ACC wrote in its March 10, 2026, letter to the STB (download below), “stands as an outdated and unwarranted barrier to competition in the freight rail industry. The conditions that led to the adoption of the standard no longer exist; its repeal is not only permissible, but necessary. ACC strongly supports the Proposed Rule to fully repeal Part 1144 and allow the Board to consider requests for reciprocal switching, through routes, and through rates on a case-by-case basis under its statutory authority.”
