The Surface Transportation Board (STB) announced that on Dec. 8 Chairman Daniel R. Elliott III visited the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) in Ottawa, Canada and signed a Memorandum of Understanding to facilitate information sharing between the agencies.
The CTA is the economic regulator of the freight railroads and other modes of transportation in Canada. Chairman Elliott signed the MOU with Dr. Scott Streiner, chairman and chief executive officer of the CTA.
STB says the MOU "memorializes the ongoing relationship that the two agencies have cultivated in recent years. It recognizes the importance of their engagement to promote ongoing information exchanges on developments in rail transportation, best practices in their respective regulatory approaches, and recent regulatory activities and current events. The agencies will exchange only information that is in the public domain in the United States and Canada to ensure that no confidentiality concerns are breached."
“The United States and Canada are linked in so many ways, not least of them by a vast rail network,” Chairman Elliott stated in Ottawa. “It is an honor today to be signing this Memorandum of Understanding between the STB and the CTA, marking our commitment to be a resource to each other in the economic regulation of freight railroads. This friendship will enable us both to engage in productive dialogue on better regulatory practices to our stakeholders and the citizens of our countries.”