49 U.S.C. § 333 — Responsibility for rail transportation unification and coordination projects

(a) The Secretary of Transportation may create and share with interested people any plans, proposals, and recommendations for mergers, consolidations, reorganizations, and other ways to unify or coordinate rail transportation — including sharing tracks and facilities, or buying and selling assets — that the Secretary believes would make the rail system more efficient and serve the public interest. (b) When a rail carrier asks, the Secretary may help plan, negotiate, and carry out a unification or coordination of operations and facilities between at least two rail carriers, to build a more efficient, economical, and financially viable private rail system. (c)(1) The Secretary may study the likely cost savings and service improvements from unifying or coordinating at least two rail carriers, looking at ways to: (A) eliminate duplicate or overlapping operations and facilities; (B) cut switching operations; (C) use shorter or more efficient routes; (D) exchange trackage rights; (E) combine trackage, terminals, or other facilities; (F) upgrade shared tracks and facilities; (G) reduce administrative and other costs; and (H) take other steps likely to cut costs and improve service. (2) A rail carrier must give the Secretary any information requested for such a study. The Secretary may assign an officer or employee to obtain data from a carrier about the kind, quality, origin, destination, sender, receiver, and routing of shipped property — even without the sender's or receiver's consent, despite section 11904. Where needed, that designated officer or employee has the same powers as under section 203(c) of the Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973, but any subpoena must carry the Secretary's own signature. (d)(1) At a rail carrier's request, the Secretary may hold conferences and mediate disputes over a proposed unification or coordination project, inviting officers and directors of the affected carrier, representatives of affected employees, Surface Transportation Board representatives, state and local officials, shippers, consumer representatives, and representatives of the Federal Trade Commission and the Attorney General. (2) Anyone who attends or is represented at such a conference is protected from antitrust liability for what's discussed there and for any agreements reached there, as long as the Secretary approved them as part of a plan to carry out the project. (e) When the Surface Transportation Board has jurisdiction over a carrier's merger proposal under section 11323(a), the Secretary may study whether the proposal meets section 11324(b), and may appear in any Board proceeding on that application.