On January 16, 2008, the Board's Office of Economics issued Study of Railroad Rates: 1985-2007. The study is available here.
On November 3, 2008, the Board announced the release of Christensen Associates' A Study of Competition in the U.S. Freight Railroad Industry and Analysis of Proposals that Might Enhance Competition. The study is available here.
Chairman Charles D. Nottingham wrote a letter to railroads on July 25, 2008 requesting their plans for managing service demands through the end of 2008. To see the Chairman's letters and the railroads’ responses, click here.
On March 17, 2008 the U.S. Department of Energy filed an application for authority to build and operate an approximately 300-mile railroad line in Nevada. In connection with this proposed transaction, the STB has developed a fact sheet explaining the STB’s procedures for evaluating the proposal, and providing jurisdictional and other background information. To see the STB’s fact sheet, click here.
On June 16, 2008, the Surface Transportation Board instituted an expedited rulemaking, in the proceeding Waybill Sample, STB Ex Parte No. 385 (Sub-No. 6), concerning railroad reporting of carload waybill-sample information. The Board's proposal would require all reporting railroads to submit fuel-surcharge revenue information in a separate waybill field newly created for that purpose. Separate reporting of fuel-surcharge revenue information would begin with the Waybill Sample to be filed for January 2009. To see the Board’s proposal, click here.
2006 Uniform Rail Costing System (URCS) information is now available on the home page, under Industry Data/Economic Data/URCS. The URCS information applies the Board's 2006 cost-of-capital finding for the rail industry. The 2006 Public Use Waybill is also available on the home page, under Industry Data/Economic Data/Waybill (see "2006 Public Use Waybill"). Additionally, the 2006 Carload Waybill Sample has been re-costed using the agency's 2006 cost-of-capital finding. The rules for release of the Carload Waybill Sample are codified at 49 CFR 1244.9.
The Surface Transportation Board has posted reports filed by Class I railroads (the Nation’s largest) on their fuel costs and consumption, and on fuel-surcharge revenues, beginning with the quarter ending December 31, 2007. To see reports received, click here.
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The agency has jurisdiction over railroad rate and service issues and rail restructuring transactions (mergers, line sales, line construction, and line abandonments); certain trucking company, moving van, and non-contiguous ocean shipping company rate matters; certain intercity passenger bus company structure, financial, and operational matters; and rates and services of certain pipelines not regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
