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Though the railroad industry was deregulated in 1980, the public was always supposed to retain access to rail service that it could rely upon at a competitive price.

That promise has been broken, and Wall Street is only partially to blame. A lack of clarity and specificity in the statutes that authorize the Surface Transportation Board (STB) to regulate U.S. railroads has also prevented this agency from exercising the authority it is meant to have. That is why a growing base of support is coalescing around the bipartisan Reliable Rail Service Act.

Ann Warner, the guest of today’s episode, is one of the figures at the forefront of this coalition. She serves as managing partner at Ann Warner LLC and spokesperson for the Freight Rail Customer Alliance (FRCA), an “alliance of freight rail shippers impacted by continued unrestrained freight rail market dominance over rail-dependent shippers.”

Ann’s legal expertise and her work at the FRCA make this episode a perfect follow-up to our fascinating conversation earlier this month with FRCA President Emily Regis. Whereas Emily focused more on the concrete ways in which Class I railroads take advantage of their customers—who often have no other transportation options—Ann helps us understand the legal structures that allow these abuses to continue.

In particular, Ann illuminates why the Reliable Rail Service Act is necessary to right these wrongs and begin to put U.S. railroads back in service of public interests rather than Wall Street greed.

Reconnect America is hosted by Bill Moyer, co-author of the book Solutionary Rail: A People-powered Campaign to Electrify America’s Railroads and Open Corridors to a Clean Energy Future. Check out the essays and supplemental posts that complement this podcast HERE.

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