Linda Bauer Darr, president of the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association (ASLRRA), urged a U.S. House of Representative subcommittee to pass regulations that are friendly toward small business.
The hearing, “Building a 21st Century Infrastructure for America: the State of Railroad, Pipeline, and Hazardous Material Safety Regulations and Opportunities to Reform,” was held by the Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials.
The ASLRRA represents 600 regional and short-line railroad companies. These companies all employ an average of less than 30 workers, operate in a specific geographic area at slow speeds while completing routine tasks, and need capital that represents 25 percent to 33 percent of annual revenue.
Application of many government regulations for small railroads is often burdensome, Darr said and urged the committee to impose regulations that are goal oriented and weigh the costs versus benefits.
“We understand the need to make railroading as safe as possible and we understand government has an obligation to step in when necessary,” Darr said. “But government also has an obligation to step in responsibly. Too often government regulation forces companies to spend huge sums of money on solutions that don’t solve much. Most damaging are the kind of one size fits all regulations that provide no basis for the presumed benefits and that ignore our unique operating characteristics.”