Supporting Statement - Form RE&I - 2015extension

2140-0013
August 2015

SUPPORTING STATEMENT - QUARTERLY REVENUE,
EXPENSE AND INCOME REPORT, RE&I

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. Class I (large) railroads are
required to file Quarterly Report Revenues, Expenses, and Income (RE&I), pursuant to authority
in 49 U.S.C. §§ 11145 and 11162-64 and the Board’s regulations at 49 C.F.R. § 1243.1. The
Quarterly RE&I Report discloses net railway operating income on a quarterly and year-to-date
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 the RE&I report
to ensure competitive and efficient transportation through general oversight programs that
monitor and forecast the financial and operating condition of railroads, and through regulation of
railroad rate and service issues and rail restructuring proposals, including railroad mergers,
consolidations, acquisitions of control, and abandonments. Information from the reports is also
used by the Board, other federal agencies, and industry groups to monitor and assess industry
growth and operations, detect changes in carrier financial stability, and identify trends that may
affect the national transportation system. Timely individual carrier information, as well as the
accumulation of meaningful data from the seven Class I railroads, is needed in the Board’s
decision-making process.
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, no duplication
of information. In most instances, the information sought is unique to each carrier.
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. The Board cannot fulfill its statutory
responsibilities with less than the quarterly reporting required for this collection.
7. Special circumstances. No special circumstances described in question 7 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: Each Class I carrier is required to file the RE&I
report quarterly.
(3) Annual hour burden per respondent: Based on information provided by the
railroad industry, we estimate a per-respondent-railroad burden of no 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 (USOA) (see 49 U.S.C.
§§ 11141-43, 11161-64; 49 C.F.R. §§ 1200-1201) for presentation in the R-1 format for
consistency of information across all reporting railroads. 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 six hours (GS 11/1 at $38.93
per hour, including benefits) annually to compile selected data from the 28 filings for the report
for our website (Class I Freight Railroads, Selected Earnings Data); three hours (GS 13/1 at
$55.49 per hour, including benefits) to review (QA) the compilation; and two hours
(Expert/Consultant at $68.37 per hour, including benefits) to post the results on the website;
resulting in a total annual cost of $537.
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: Certain information from these reports is
compiled and published on the Board’s website as a Quarterly Selected Earnings Report at <
http://www.stb.dot.gov/stb/industry/econ_reports.html >. These reports are also posted on the
website in their entirety.
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