WASHINGTON—From a drab gray office building in the capital, an obscure federal board has spent much of the year telling railroad chief executives how not to run their railroads.
The Surface Transportation Board, the economic regulator overseeing the country’s freight railroads, is considering aggressive new rule-making to force railroads to share tracks and improve competition for their customers. It is adjudicating a dispute over track access on the Gulf Coast, with implications for the growth of passenger rail nationwide.