(a) The Board will prescribe a reciprocal switching agreement under this part if all the conditions in this paragraph (a) are met.

(1) For the lane of traffic that is the subject of the petition, the petitioner has practical physical access to only one Class I carrier that could serve that lane.

(2) The petitioner demonstrates that the incumbent rail carrier failed to meet one or more of the performance standards in § 1145.2 with regards to its shipment.

(3) The incumbent rail carrier fails to demonstrate an affirmative defense as provided in § 1145.3.

(b) Notwithstanding paragraph (a) of this section, the Board will not prescribe a reciprocal switching agreement if the incumbent rail carrier or alternate rail carrier demonstrates that the agreement is not practicable, including: switching service under the agreement, i.e., the process of transferring the shipment between carriers within the terminal area, could not be provided without unduly impairing either rail carrier's operations; switching service under the agreement would be operationally infeasible; or the alternate rail carrier's provision of line-haul service to the petitioner would be infeasible or would unduly impair the incumbent rail carrier or the alternate rail carrier's ability to serve its existing customers. If the incumbent rail carrier and alternate rail carrier have an existing reciprocal switching arrangement in a terminal area in which the petitioner's traffic is currently served, the proposed operation is presumed to be operationally feasible, and the incumbent rail carrier will bear a heavy burden of establishing why the proposed operation should not qualify for a reciprocal switching agreement due to infeasibility.

(c) In prescribing a reciprocal switching agreement, the Board shall prescribe a term of service of three years, provided that the Board may prescribe a longer term of service of up to five years if the petitioner demonstrates that the longer minimum term is necessary for the prescription to be practical given the petitioner's or alternate carrier's legitimate business needs.

(d) Upon the Board's prescription of a reciprocal switching agreement under this part, the affected rail carriers must set the terms of the agreement and offer service thereunder within 30 days of service of the prescription and notify the Board within 10 days of when the carriers offered service that the agreement has taken effect. Additionally, the incumbent carrier must promptly amend its switching publication(s) as appropriate to reflect the availability of reciprocal switching under the prescription.

(e) If the affected carriers cannot agree on compensation within 30 days of the service of the prescription, then the affected rail carriers must offer service and petition the Board to set compensation.