Updating Class I Rail Carrier Reporting Requirements

SURFACE TRANSPORTATION BOARD <CFR>49 CFR Parts 1241 and 1251</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. EP 787]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Updating Class I Rail Carrier Reporting Requirements</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Surface Transportation Board. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Notice of proposed rulemaking. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The Board proposes to terminate Class I carriers' supplemental reporting of certain Positive Train Control (PTC) expenditures and to require Class I carriers to report two service metrics on a weekly basis. Because PTC is now fully implemented, the Board proposes deregulatory action to end this reporting. With respect to service-related reporting, the Board proposes to require Class I carriers to report metrics that would advance the Board's objective of ensuring rail service reliability. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Comments, as described below, are due by October 30, 2025. Replies are due by November 13, 2025. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> All filings must be submitted to the Surface Transportation Board either via e-filing on the Board's website or in writing addressed to 395 E Street SW, Washington, DC 20423-0001. Filings will be posted to the Board's website and need not be served on other commenters or any other party to the proceeding. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Pedro Ramirez at (202) 915-0862. If you require accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act, please call (202) 245-0245. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Positive Train Control Reporting</HD> The Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (RSIA) required Class I rail carriers to implement PTC—an automated safety system designed to prevent certain types of train accidents—by December 31, 2015, on main lines where intercity or commuter rail passenger transportation, as defined in 49 U.S.C. 24102, is regularly provided, and main lines over which five million or more gross tons of annual traffic and poison- or toxic-by-inhalation hazardous materials, as defined in 49 CFR 171.8, 173.115, and 173.132, are transported. 49 U.S.C. 20157(a)(1); <E T="03">see also</E> 49 CFR 236.1019 (main line track exceptions). That deadline was later extended, pursuant to the Positive Train Control Enforcement and Implementation Act of 2015, to December 31, 2018, and railroads were allowed to individually petition the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) for an alternative schedule and sequence that could further extend the deadline to a date that reflected implementation as soon as practicable but was no more than two additional years. 49 U.S.C. 20157(a)(1), (3)(A)-(D); 49 CFR 1.89. Under 49 U.S.C. 11145(b)(1), the Board may require rail carriers to file with the Board an annual report containing “an account, in as much detail as the Board may require, of the affairs of the rail carrier.” 49 U.S.C. 11145(b)(1). The Board's regulations require each Class I rail carrier to submit such annual reports, known as R-1 reports, containing information about finances and operating statistics. 49 CFR 1241.11(a). In response to a petition by Union Pacific Railroad Company (UP) in 2013, the Board adopted, via notice-and-comment rulemaking, a supplement to the annual R-1 reporting requirements specifically addressing PTC expenditures. <E T="03">Reporting Requirements for Positive Train Control Expenses & Invs.</E> ( <E T="03">Reporting Requirements</E> ), EP 706, slip op. at 3-4 (STB served Aug. 14, 2013). In adopting the rule, the Board explained that: [The supplement] would provide [the Board] with important information that would help identify transportation industry changes that may require attention by the agency and would assist the Board in preparing financial and statistical summaries and abstracts to provide itself, Congress, other government agencies, the transportation industry, and the public with transportation data useful in making regulatory policy and business decisions. <E T="03">Id.</E> at 3. Accordingly, PTC expenditures today are incorporated into R-1 reports under the category of “capital investments and expenses” as well as in a “PTC Supplement” that breaks out PTC expenses from broader categories. <E T="03">See</E> 49 CFR 1241.11(b). <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>  R-1 reports, which include the PTC Supplement, are available on the Board's website. </FTNT> The PTC Supplement requires the carriers to submit PTC versions of schedules 330 (road property and equipment improvements), 332 (depreciation base and rates—road property and equipment), 335 (accumulated depreciation), 352B (investment in railroad property), and 410 (railway operating expenses) containing dollar amounts that reflect only the amounts attributable to PTC for the filing year. <E T="03">See Reporting Requirements,</E> EP 706, slip op. at App. B. The PTC Supplement also contains PTC versions of schedules 700 (mileage operated at close of year), 710 (inventory of equipment), 710S (unit cost of equipment installed during the year), and 720 (track and traffic conditions). <E T="03">See id.</E> Railroads also must report in each supplement schedule PTC-related expenditures for passenger-only service not otherwise captured in the individual schedules. 49 CFR 1241.11(b). In addition to separating capital expenses and operating expenses incurred for PTC, railroads must disclose the value of funds from non-government and government transfers, including grants, subsidies, and other contributions or reimbursements, used or designated to purchase or create PTC assets or to offset PTC costs. <E T="03">Id.</E> On December 29, 2020, FRA announced that PTC implementation was complete on all required freight and passenger railroad route miles. FRA, Positive Train Control (PTC), <E T="03">https://railroads.dot.gov/research-development/program-areas/train-control/ptc/positive-train-control-ptc</E> (last visited Sept. 23, 2025). FRA also certified that each host railroad's PTC system complies with the technical requirements for PTC systems. <E T="03">Id.</E> On August 26, 2024, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) filed a petition to reopen Docket No. EP 706 and terminate the PTC Supplement requirement. The Board takes notice of AAR's arguments and is issuing this notice of proposed rulemaking on its own motion. <FTREF/> <SU>2</SU> <E T="03">See</E> 49 CFR 1110.2(a). <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>   <E T="03">See Reporting Requirements,</E> EP 706, slip op. at 2 (STB served September 30, 2025) (denying AAR's petition as moot). </FTNT> AAR states that when the railroads requested that the Board adopt the PTC Supplement requirement more than a decade ago, PTC-related capital costs and operating expenditures were “anticipated to be particularly high during the installation stage.” AAR Pet. 1, <E T="03">Reporting Requirements,</E> EP 706. But AAR argues that now, “the vast majority of costs associated with implementing PTC have been dispensed with.” <E T="03">Id.</E> at 4. AAR further asserts that, “[w]ith these costs essentially completed, there is little utility in the continuation of the reporting requirements.” <E T="03">Id.</E> Additionally, AAR argues that Class I railroads are now “incurring unnecessary costs and expending significant time” to comply with the PTC-related reporting requirements. <E T="03">Id.</E> AAR further argues that remaining PTC costs have been integrated into the cost of purchase or replacement of signal and communications assets and that any associated maintenance expenditures are captured as part of railroads' ongoing maintenance costs in the ordinary course of business. <E T="03">Id.</E> As a result, according to AAR, separating PTC-related asset and maintenance expenses has become challenging and necessarily requires cost allocations and estimates. <E T="03">Id.</E> No replies to AAR's petition in Docket No. EP 706 were filed. Given that PTC has been fully implemented, the Board finds the benefits from the supplemental reporting, <E T="03">see Reporting Requirements,</E> EP 706, slip op. at 3, no longer justify the burden of generating and reporting the detailed information required by 49 CFR 1241.11(b). Ending these requirements would simplify annual R-1 reporting. The Board therefore proposes to eliminate the PTC Supplement requirement by repealing 49 CFR 1241.11(b). Under this proposal, PTC-related expenditures would still be reflected in the R-1 “capital investments and expenses” totals, but would not be separately identifiable from non-PTC expenditures. <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> This modification would further the goals of the rail transportation policy of 49 U.S.C. 10101 by minimizing the need for Federal regulatory control over the rail transportation system, 49 U.S.C. 10101(2), and ensuring the availability of accurate cost information in regulatory proceedings, while minimizing the burden on rail carriers of developing and maintaining the capability of providing such information, 49 U.S.C. 10101(13). <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>  The Board also proposes to remove the current note to part 1241, which states that the forms for part 1241 are available on request from the Board's Office of Economics, and add the following note: “[t]he report forms prescribed by § 1241.11 are available at the Surface Transportation Board website.” </FTNT> Additionally, if the Board adopts the proposed discontinuance of supplemental PTC reporting, the Board proposes to require all Class I carriers to submit a one-time summary document identifying individual line items in their respective R-1 reports that contain PTC-related expenditures representing at least 15% of the line-item amounts. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Service Data Reporting</HD> Rail service reliability is essential to ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 44k characters. 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