Rail Service Data
April 30, 2018 by Olawale Adekoya
The Surface Transportation Board requires Class I rail carriers to provide weekly reports containing data on rail service performance. These reports, which also include data pertaining to the Chicago gateway, allow both the agency and the public to have greater real-time visibility into the performance of the Class I industry. The weekly reports filed by the Class I rail carriers can be found below. In addition to the individual carrier reports, the Board has created a spreadsheet of consolidated service performance data for all Class I rail carriers.
Note: The Board issued a final rule in Petition for Rulemaking to Amend 49 C.F.R. Part 1250, Docket No. EP 724 (Sub-No. 5), amending its railroad performance data reporting rules to include certain chemical and plastics traffic as a distinct reporting category to the Class I railroads’ weekly reporting for the “cars-held” metric. The final rule is available here.
** Notes on recent changes to reporting data **
BNSF recently noted an error in their data. Table for item #7 (grain loadings), recorded some very occasional grain shipments that were waybilled to Alaska reflecting unusual but real-world routing. When this happened, it would get pulled in their old query and it would shift the data in this table off one cell. BNSF has adjusted their data query so that this issue can no longer occur and the reporting for the identified states is accurate. These changes are now reflected in the updated individual files for the following dates (04/17/2019, 05/01/2019, 05/15/2019, 05/22/2019, 06/17/2020, 07/22/2020, 09/30/2020) as well as the consolidated file starting December 17th, 2020.
CTCO – As of November 11th, 2020, the Chicago Terminal weekly report will no longer include data for terminal forecast indicators cars enroute (through no I/C) and subtotal no I/C field. It was determined that data for cars enroute (through no I/C) cannot be collected at this time. Accordingly, those two fields will no longer be included in the weekly report.
KCSR – Beginning with the report filed with the Board on October 14, 2020, KCSR adjusted its methodology to capture all northbound cars for purposes of calculating Laredo Yard average dwell. This more complete data results in a reduction in weekly average dwell in the Laredo Yard terminal. KCSR noticed in September that the weekly average terminal dwell figure for Laredo Yard reported in Item 2 did not match KCSR’s other observations of dwell in that yard. After researching the issue, KCSR determined that dwell for northbound cars was not being captured correctly because northbound cars were identified as being received by KCSR at the International Bridge but as departing from Laredo Yard, and because those points are separate stations, the cars did not register as dwelling at the Laredo Yard station.
Individual Carrier Performance Data
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System avg. train speed by train type and overall system train speed
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Weekly avg. terminal dwell time and overall system dwell time
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Car online by car type
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Weekly avg. dwell time at origin for unit trains by train type
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Weekly avg. number of trains held per day by train type and cause
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Weekly avg. number of loaded/empty cars not moved in 48 hour+
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Weekly total grain cars loaded and billed by state and service
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Grain cars: cars ordered, car orders filled, cars past due
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Grain trains: plan vs. performance
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Coal trains: plan vs. performance
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Weekly carload originated and received by commodity
Data Concerning the Chicago Gateway
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The avg. daily car counts in Chicago yards
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The avg. daily number of trains held short of Chicago
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Summary of the protocols/alert levels used by the Chicago Transportation Coordination Office and notification when the alert levels are changed
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