By means of a general method for treating mesoscopic systems with strong internal correlations, transport properties through a set of quasi-degenerate transitions in the interacting region, or active element (AE), are considered. It is shown that the behaviour of the AE drastically changes as the couplings to the contacts are varied from the strong to the weak coupling limit. These changes strongly influence the transport properties of the system, from a single increase of the current to a staircase form with unequally large steps. In the present study, kinematic interactions, non-equilibrium populations numbers and dependence on the bias voltage has been included in the treatment of the local properties of the AE. Analytical results for the equilibrium situation are presented as well as a derivation of the corresponding non-equilibrium quantities. Results from self-consistent numerical calculations of the considered case are presented.