Railways already have obligations with respect to interswitching and those are not going to be affected by this bill. There is currently a risk that class I railways may not want to provide short lines with access to their tracks, especially those with poor safety records, given their liability concerns. This bill ensures that short lines have minimum insurance coverage, which helps mitigate that risk for them.
Regulated interswitching ensures that shippers' goods are moved to market efficiently, but the question of whether a class I railway can refuse access to a short line in the context of regulated interswitching has to be addressed by the CTA, should that case arise.