supporting statement - Form REI - 2018extension (to ROCIS)

2140-0013

September 2018

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 under 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 October 31, 2018.

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 this report may be 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. The information requested does not duplicate any other information available to the Board or the public.

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 2017 data, the revenue threshold for a Class I rail carrier is $463,860,933). 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 on July 11, 2018, providing a 60-day comment period regarding this collection. 83 Fed. Reg. 32,180. No comments were received. 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: Seven

(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 (six hours per quarter). 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. This report is submitted to the agency electronically.

14. Estimated costs to the Board. We estimate that it takes 12 hours (analyst at $62.24 per hour, salary including benefits) annually to compile selected data from these reports, and an additional two hours (auditor at $90.57 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 $928.02.

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 compiled and published on the Board’s website at https://www.stb.gov/econdata.nsf/RE&I?OpenView.

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