Railway Law (United States)

The railways in the United States have been under legal control since the 19th century.

The federal laws that were important for the railways primarily concerned the regulation of competition and the prevention of monopolies and oligopolies. After the decline of rail traffic in the early 1970s, many of the regulations were reversed and the rail sector was largely deregulated with regard to competition.

Legal sources

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• Interstate Commerce Act 1887 - Creation of the Interstate Commerce Commission
• Elkins Act 1903 - Authorizes the Interstate Commerce Commission to impose penalties for price discounts
• Erdman Act
• Esch-Cummins Act
• Federal Employers Liability Act
• Hepburn Act
• Interstate Commerce Act
• Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act
• Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act 1995 - Liquidation of the Interstate Commerce Commission and establishment of the successor Surface Transportation Board
• Mann – Elkins Act
• Mayfield-Newton Act
• National Mass Transportation Assistance Act
• Pacific Railway Acts
• Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008
• Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act
• Railroad Safety Appliance Act
• Railway Labor Act
• Staggers Rail Act 1980 - Comprehensive deregulation of the railway sector
• Transportation Act of 1958
• Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964
• Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1970

Institutions

The Federal Railroad Administration, founded in 1966, is responsible for the supervisory authority, especially for the safety-related area, the administration of the relevant subsidies and research to improve safety and rail traffic . This authority is subordinate to the Ministry of Transport.

The Surface Transportation Board has been responsible for competition issues since the Interstate Commerce Commission was broken up in 1995 . The tasks of the authority, which is independent of the Ministry of Transport, are the control of freight tariffs, the control of mergers and the closure and construction of new railway lines.

literature

• Frank J. Dooley and William E. Thoms: Railroad Law a Decade after Deregulation . Quorum Books, Westport, Conn. [u. a.] 1994, ISBN 978-0-89930-631-5 .
• James W. Ely: Railroads and American Law . Kansas University Press, Kansas 2001, ISBN 978-0-7006-1144-7 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ About the FRA ( Memento of the original from September 14, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ About STB