Supporting Statementsdm

SUPPORTING STATEMENT
FOR REQUEST OF OMB APPROVAL
UNDER THE PAPERWORK REDUCTION ACT AND 5 CFR 1320
The Surface Transportation Board (STB or Board), requests a three-year extension of
approval of the regulations requiring regulated rail carriers to maintain and file system diagram
maps.
A. Justification
1. Statutory and Regulatory Basis. The Interstate Commerce Act, 49 U.S.C. 10903,
mandates that railroads subject to the STB’s jurisdiction shall not abandon any part of their lines
or discontinue service over any portion of their rail lines without the Board’s authorization.
Section 10903(c)(2) requires a carrier to maintain a complete diagram of the transportation
system operated, directly or indirectly, by the carrier (commonly referred to as a system diagram
map (SDM)), and to submit to the Board and publish amendments to its diagram that are
necessary to maintain the accuracy of its diagram. That section further provides that the carrier’s
diagram include a detailed description of each of its railroad lines potentially subject to
abandonment and identify each railroad line for which the carrier plans to file an application [for
abandonment or discontinuance]. In addition, the feeder line provisions of 49 U.S.C.
10907(b)(1)(ii) provide procedures that only can be used to purchase a railroad line that has been
identified (for at least 60 days) on an SDM as a likely candidate for abandonment.
The Board’s regulations at 49 CFR 1152.10 require each regulated railroad to keep on
file with the Board a current SDM, which identifies all lines by categories including the
following: (1) all lines or portions of lines that the carrier anticipates will be the subject of
abandonment or discontinuance within a three-year period; (2) all lines or portions of lines that
are potentially subject to abandonment; (3) all lines or portions of lines for which abandonment
or discontinuance is pending before the Board; (4) all lines or portions of lines that are being
operated under the rail service continuation provisions of 49 U.S.C. 10904; and (5) all other lines
or portions of lines that the carrier owns and operates, directly or indirectly. 49 CFR
1152.10(b)(1)-(5). The maps must be drawn to scale and clearly show the location of the lines,
as well as the location of every city with a population of 5,000 or more within 5 air miles of a rail
line owned or operated by the carrier. 49 CFR 1152.10(d). An exception is provided for smaller
railroads (those with operating revenues of less than $20 million in 1991 dollars) to file, in lieu
of the SDM, a narrative description of its lines that provides all required information. 49 CFR
1152.10(a). In addition, all carriers filing either an SDM or narrative description must separately
list and describe all lines or portions of lines that fall within categories 1 through 3 above, by
category and state, including counties in which the line is located, mileposts delineating each line
or portion of line, and terminal stations located on each line or portion of line with milepost
designations. 49 CFR 1152.11. Thereafter, carriers have a continuing obligation to keep the
SDM or narrative information accurate. 49 CRS 1152.13. Carriers are also required to notify
the states in which they operate and to publish a notice in a newspaper of general circulation in
each county containing category 1 through 3 lines whose status is being revised. 49 CFR
1152.12. The SDM or alternative narrative is available to the public from the carrier by request.
49 CFR 1152.12(c)(3).

2. Use of Information. The information sought in this collection constitutes advance
notice to the Board and the public about likely decreases in the availability of rail service, and
provides a valuable planning tool for the Board and the shipping public. It facilitates informed
decision making by the Board, and permits shippers to participate in Board proceedings that may
affect them; to submit timely proposals for continuing rail service under the feeder-line
acquisition program (49 U.S.C. 10907(b)(i)); and/or to plan for alternative means of
transportation. The maps are maintained by the Board until they are replaced by more updated
maps or are otherwise no longer needed for reference.
3. Reduction of Burden. Electronic filing of this information is permitted.
4. Identification of Duplication. The information requested does not duplicate any other
information available to the Board or the public.
5. Impact on Small Business. The Board’s regulations lessen the burden on carriers in
several material respects. First, small carriers have the option of filing a narrative description of
their lines, in lieu of a map. Second, carriers are required to file the map only once (within 60
days for new carriers), after which a carrier is required to file only amendments, as necessary to
update the SDM or description as line designations change.
6. Consequence if Collection Not Conducted or Less Frequent. This information is only
collected as necessary to keep current the information available to the Board and the public. If
the Board did not require this information, the ability of the Board and the shipping public to
predict the availability of rail service would be severely impaired. In addition, interested parties
would have less notice of pending and anticipated abandonments and less of an opportunity to
present their views, or to use the feeder-line programto continue rail service on lines that might
otherwise be abandoned. Finally, because the Board is required by statute to collect this
information, failure to do so would expose the Board and taxpayers to costly litigation.
7. Special Circumstances. No special circumstances require the collection to be
conducted in a manner inconsistent with the guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.5.
8. Outside Consultations. The Board published a 60-day notice requesting comments on
this collection on November 12, 2009, at 74 Fed. Reg. 58368. No comments were received.
However, an informal survey of respondents was conducted by phone to obtain objective
information regarding the burden of this collection on respondents.
9. Payment or Gift to Respondents. No payments or gifts to respondents are made.
10. Confidentiality. One of the purposes of this collection is to provide notice to the
public of anticipated changes in the availability of freight rail service. Thus, all information
collected through the filing of system diagram maps is available to the public, and no assurance
of confidentiality is made in connection with this report.
11. Sensitive Information. No information of a sensitive nature is requested.

12. Collection Burden to Respondents. A new rail carrier is required to file with the
Board an accurate SDM or narrative, and line descriptions as appropriate, within 60 days after it
becomes a carrier. Thereafter, carriers are only required to update their SDMs or narratives and
descriptions as line designations change.
During the past 3 years, the Board has received an average of 3 system-diagram maps per
year. Our experience has shown that railroads tend to group changes to their SDM into single
filings. In addition, affiliated carriers tend to file a consolidated SDM or amendments. In a
recent survey, the average reported hourly burden associated with this collection was 7.1 hours.
Thus, the annual burden from the collection of the information is estimated at 21 hours.
13. Annual Cost to Respondents. The cost to railroads to prepare an SDM or amendment
varies greatly for a number of reasons including, among other things, the size and class of the
carrier, the extent of the carrier’s operations geographically, and the number and size of affiliates
(if any). Based on an informal survey of several railroads, we estimate the costs as ranging from
$60 for smaller railroads filing simple maps or descriptions to $2,550 for the largest carriers
filing maps depicting extensive rail systems. For larger carriers, the bulk of the non-hourly cost
consists of fees for cartographers and printing, as well as expenditures to comply with the
publication requirements of 49 CFR 1152.12 . For smaller railroads, the only non-labor costs
would be the cost of publication. There is no filing fee for SDMs at the Board.
14. Annualized Cost to Federal Government. The information required of regulated
carriers is processed by the Board’s support personnel and does not involve the Board’s legal
staff. The average time to process an SDM or an amendment is one hour by the staff (GS-9
level) at $27.37 per hour (2009 level). The fully distributed cost to the Board to process one
system diagram map is $73.03. Based on an estimated 3 filings, the estimated annualized cost to
the Board is $219.09.

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15. Changes in Burden Hours. In our 2006 request for OMB review, the total burden for
filing an SDM was based on 4 annual responses, taking on average 4.5 hours to complete. The
increase in the estimated annual hourly burden from 18 in 2006 to 21 in 2006, despite the slight
decrease in respondents, can be attributed to the fact that the carriers in our survey sample
operate significantly larger rail systems than those in the survey sample three years ago.

16. Statistical Use. Not applicable. There are no plans to publish for statistical use
information derived from these maps.

B. Collection of Information for Employing Statistical Methods.
Not applicable. This collection of information does not employ statistical methods.

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