About STB > Office: OE

Office of Economics

The Office of Economics (OE) supports the Surface Transportation Board’s decision-making process through economic, cost, financial, and engineering analyses in railroad maximum-rate proceedings, mergers, line abandonments, and line-construction and trackage-rights cases before the agency.

OE oversees accounting and reporting rules and requirements for regulated railroads and maintains an audit program to ensure compliance; provides up-to-date information on the financial condition of individual railroads and the overall industry; and maintains informational databases, including the railroad waybill file and railroad annual and quarterly financial and operating data.
                 
The Office also maintains the STB’s Uniform Railroad Costing System, the agency’s general-purpose costing system used in matters such as rail maximum-rate cases, calculation of branch-line costs in abandonment cases, and cost estimates in other regulatory contexts.

The OE staff includes economists, accountants, financial analysts, engineers, transportation industry analysts and computer programmers.