The mechanism: No tariff schedule and no White House order sets the price a chemical plant in Louisiana or a grain elevator in Kansas pays to move freight when only one railroad's tracks reach its dock. That's the Surface Transportation Board's job. The STB — a five-member independent agency that regulates rail rates, service, and mergers — controls three levers that determine whether Class I railroads keep pricing power over "captive" shippers who have no practical rail alternative: reciprocal switching (can a captive shipper force access to a competing railroad's line at a nearby interchange), rate-reasonableness review (can a shipper challenge an "unreasonable" rate and win relief), and merger standards (how hard is it to combine two Class I networks). Every one of these levers has moved sharply in the railroads' favor over the past two years, and the STB just reopened the biggest one. On January 9, 2026, the Board published a proposed rule (Docket No. EP 788) to repeal 49 C.F.R. Part 1144 — the very regulation that, since 1985, has made forced reciprocal switching nearly impossible to obtain. Comment and reply periods closed this spring; a final rule is now pending.