President Joe Biden today will issue an executive order (EO) on economic competition in which he'll call on the Surface Transportation Board (STB) to require freight railroads to provide rights of way to passenger rail and to strengthen their obligations to treat other freight companies fairly.

The order includes 72 initiatives by more than a dozen federal agencies “to promptly tackle some of the most pressing competition problems” across the U.S. economy, according to a White House “Fact Sheet” on the EO.

Among the initiatives: Biden will encourage the STB to require railroad track owners to provide rights of way to passenger rail, an initiative that likely would impact Amtrak’s effort to gain easier access to freight railroads’ track on which Amtrak trains operate.