SURFACE TRANSPORTATION BOARD

The Surface Transportation Board today issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to codify a longstanding voluntary practice of data reporting by the Class I carriers.  The Class I carriers, through the Association of American Railroads (AAR), have annually reported tare weight and loss and damage data for use in the Board’s Uniform Railroad Costing System (URCS).  In addition to formalizing this practice, the NPRM would allow the Class I carriers a choice of whether to provide tare weight and loss and damage data through AAR or file the data individually.

In 1989, the Board’s predecessor, the Interstate Commerce Commission, adopted URCS as its general purpose costing system.  The Board uses URCS for a variety of regulatory functions, including rate reasonableness and abandonment proceedings, to provide the railroad industry and shippers with a standardized costing model, to cost the Board’s Carload Waybill Sample to develop industry cost information, and to provide interested parties with basic cost information regarding railroad operations.

Today’s decision recognizes AAR’s longstanding voluntary practice to provide annually the tare weight and loss damage data.  The Board proposes a rule to formalize that reporting requirement to ensure continued availability of the data.

Comments on the NPRM will be due by June 13, 2022 and replies will be due by June 28, 2022.

More information about URCS data is located on the Board’s website here.  The Board’s notice of proposed rulemaking in URCS Data Reporting, Docket No. EP 769, may be viewed and downloaded here.

###