Supporting Statement - Form CBS - 2015extension

2140-0012
August 2015

SUPPORTING STATEMENT –QUARTERLY
CONDENSED BALANCE SHEET, FORM CBS

A. Justification:
1. (a) Why the collection is necessary. The Surface Transportation Board (Board) has
broad statutory authority to provide economic regulatory oversight of railroads, addressing such
matters as rates; service; the construction, acquisition and abandonment of rail lines; carrier
mergers; and interchange of traffic among carriers (49 U.S.C. §§ 10101-11908). Under
49 U.S.C. §§ 11145, the Board may require regulated carriers to submit financial and statistical
data and reports that the Board needs to carry out its mission.
The Board requires all Class I (large) railroads to file Quarterly Condensed Balance Sheet
(CBS) reports. 49 C.F.R. § 1243.2. This collection shows the balance, at the end of each
quarter, of the carrier’s assets and liabilities (for the current and prior year); the carrier’s gross
capital expenditures (on a quarterly and cumulative basis for the current and prior year); and the
carrier’s revenue tons carried (on a quarterly and cumulative basis for the current and prior year).
The Board is requesting an extension without modification of this information collection, which
will otherwise expire on August 31, 2015.

2. How the collection will be used. The Board uses the information in this report to
ensure competitive and efficient transportation through general oversight programs that monitor
and forecast the financial and operating condition of railroads, and through specific regulation of
railroad rate and service issues, as well as rail restructuring proposals, including railroad
mergers, consolidations, acquisitions of control, and abandonments. Information from the
reports is used by the Board; other federal agencies; and industry groups to assess industry
growth and operations, detect changes in carrier financial stability, and identify trends that may
affect the Nation’s transportation system.
3. Extent of automated information collection. The railroads submit this report
electronically in Excel spreadsheet format.
4. Identification of duplication. No other Federal agency has economic regulatory
authority over freight rail transportation. Because no other Federal agency collects the
information in this report, nor is this information available from any other source, there is no
duplication of information. In most instances, the information sought is unique to each carrier.
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5. Effects on small business. No small entities will be affected by the collection of this
information. This reporting requirement applies only to Class I railroads, which have operating
revenues in excess of $250 million (1991 dollars) (adjusted for inflation using 2014 data, the
revenue threshold for a Class I rail carrier is $475,754,803). The Board has adopted an indexing
methodology that will ensure that regulated carriers are classified based on real business
expansion, rather than the effects of inflation.
6. Impact of less frequent collections. Without quarterly reporting for this collection, the
Board’s ability to fulfill its statutory responsibilities would be diminished.
7. Special circumstances. No special circumstances apply to this collection.
8. Compliance with 5 C.F.R. § 1320.8. As required, the Board published a Federal
Register notice providing a 60-day comment period regarding this collection. No comments
were received. 80 Fed. Reg. 32201 (June 5, 2015). As also required, a Federal Register notice
providing an additional 30-day comment period is being published simultaneously with this
submission.
9. Payments or gifts to respondents. The Board does not provide any payment or gift to
respondents.
10. Assurance of confidentiality. All information collected through this report is
available to the public.
11. Justification for collection of sensitive information. This collection contains no
information of a sensitive nature.
12. Estimation of burden hours for respondents. The following information pertains to
the estimate of burden hours associated with this collection:
(1) Number of respondents: 7.
(2) Frequency of response: quarterly.
(3) Annual hour burden per respondent: Based on information provided
by the railroad industry, we estimate a per-respondent-railroad burden of not more than
24 hours (6 hours per report), which includes time spent converting the data from the
carrier’s individual accounting system to the Board’s Uniform System of Accounts (see
49 U.S.C. §§ 11141-43, 11161-64; 49 C.F.R. §§ 1200-1201), for consistent presentation
of information in the R-1 format across all reporting railroads. This collection, which is
based on data compiled by respondents to make internal business decisions, is available
from the carriers’ records and will not otherwise increase the accounting burden. The
total annual burden hours for all seven carriers is estimated at not more than 168 hours.
13. Other costs to respondents: No non-hour costs for operation, maintenance, or
purchase of services associated with this collection have been identified: (a) Neither the

existing collection, nor the proposed modification, will impose start-up costs on
respondents. (b) This report is submitted to the agency electronically.
14. Estimated costs to the Board: We estimate that it takes eight hours (GS 11/1
at $38.93 per hour, salary including benefits) annually to compile selected data from
these reports; four hours (GS 13/1 at $55.49 per hour, including benefits) to review (QA)
the work; and an additional two hours (Expert/Consultant at $68.37 per hour, including
benefits) to post the results on the website (Class I Freight Railroads, Selected Earnings
Data), resulting in a total annual cost of $670.
15. Changes in burden hours. No change in burden hours is requested. The
Board is requesting an extension without modification.
16. Plans for tabulation and publication: These reports are submitted in the form
of Excel spreadsheets and are posted on the Board’s website at
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17. Display of expiration date for OMB approval. No exception is sought. The
control number and expiration date for this collection appear on the form.
18. Exceptions to Certification Statement. Not applicable

B. Collections of Information Employing Statistical Methods:
Not applicable