[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 40 (Monday, March 15, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2680-S2681]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              RAIL COMPETITION AND SERVICE IMPROVEMENT ACT

 Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, since the early 1980's, Montana has 
been faced with a very serious transportation problem regarding the 
transportation of our grain and coal out of our state at reasonable 
prices and in a reasonable period of time.
  Montana is a classic case of what happens to rail customers when you 
eliminate competitive transportation alternatives. Our rail rates go 
through the roof and our rail customers end up subsidizing rail rates 
in regions where competition is present. In a nutshell, our rail 
customers pay more for less service. The rail customers in regions with 
competitive alternatives pay less and receive more service.
  Now, we're seeing the same thing happen in other regions around the 
nation. Montana has been down this road and I encourage my colleagues 
to look at the problems we face in Montana as a pre-cursor to what will 
happen in their states.
  The Surface Transportation Board (STB), based on their deliberations 
over the McCarty Farms vs. Burlington Northern case, has indicated to 
the producer that BNSF's rates are not excessive. I am concerned that 
after 17 years of adjudication using the STB's decision making process, 
that process is flawed.
  In the West, we have only two Class I railroads and in Montana, we 
have only one Class I railroad. Under today's deregulated environment, 
we have come full circle back to limited competition. Because of this 
lack of competition, Montana's producers pick up the tab for those who 
have competition.
  Montana's shippers pay some of the highest rates in the world while 
our neighbors pay a significantly lower cost for transportation. In 
Montana, we are truly dependent on the railroads to transport bulk 
commodities that could not be efficiently transported by any other 
means.
  Agricultural shippers are the most vulnerable to predatory marketing 
by monopolistic practices of railroads. The farm producer unlike every 
other industry we know of in America, cannot pass the freight costs on 
to anyone else, they must simply eat it.

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  We do not need to re-regulate the railroads; rather we need to 
restore the balance between rail customers and the railroads that 
Congress intended to achieve originally in the Staggers Rail Act of 
1980. I look forward to working with my colleagues to restore the 
competitive balance in the rail transportation industry and level the 
playing field for our nation's rail customers.

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