Consumer Interests Transportation Act

Consumer Interests Transportation Act - Title I: Rate Matters - Makes technical amendments to the Interstate Commerce Act regarding disposition of railroad carrier, rates within specified time periods, competitive and compensatory rates, and modernizing accounting systems. Title II: Energy Savings and Efficiency Under Operating Authorities - Repeals specified restrictions with respect to the provision of motor carrier service by carriers by railroad. Directs the Interstate Commerce Commission to promulgate regulations pursuant to which it shall: (1) consider cost and rate advantages, if any, reasonably to be expected to result from the granting of any application; (2) so construct grants of authority as to permit efficient, flexible service under such authorities, and in markets to be served by the proposed operations; (3) utilize the forces of competition to encourage efficiency, economy, and innovation in transport; (4) not deny an application solely or in substantial measure on the grounds that carriers operating under certificates issued under this section prior to the application under consideration have the physical capacity to carry, or an entitlement to carry, all or substantially all the traffic which does, could, or might move in the markets affected by the proposed service; and (5) make a final decision within ninety days of the filing of any application for permanent operating authority, absent a finding of compelling circumstances requiring more extended consideration, and, in the event of such a finding, make a final decision within one hundred and eighty days of the filing of any such application. Title III: Revised Standards for Rail Service Abandonment - States that no carrier by railroad subject to this part shall undertake the extension of its line of railroad, or the construction of a new line of railroad, or shall acquire or operate any line of railroad, or extension of its line of railroad, or shall engage in transportation under this part over or by means of such additional or extended line of railroad, unless and until there shall first have been obtained from the Commission a certificate that the present or future public convenience and necessity require or will require the construction, or operation, or construction and operation, of such additional or extended line of railroad. Provides that the Commission shall have power to issue such certificate as prayed for, or to refuse to issue it, or to issue it for a portion or portions of a line of railroad, or extension thereof, described in the application, and may attach to the issuance of the certificate such terms and conditions as in its judgment the public convenience and necessity may require. Prohibits any carrier by railroad from abandoning all or any portion of a line of railroad except in accordance with specified procedures. States that, where the Commission finds that the present or future public convenience and necessity permit the abandonment of any line of railroad, the Commission shall impose as a condition of such abandonment that tracks and other structures or facilities be removed so as to return the land held in conjunction with the operation of such abandoned line to a safe condition suitable for other use. Authorizes the Secretary of Transportation to reimburse a State or a local or regional authority for 70 percent of the amount paid by such State, local, or regional authority as an operating subsidy to continue service on a rail line or lines that would otherwise have been abandoned.

Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in Senate" stage on May 9, 1974. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.

Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.