Under 49 U.S.C. § 11143, railroads may
only include, under operating expenses, depreciation charges for
those classes of property for which the Board has prescribed a rate
of depreciation. Pursuant to the Board's authority under § 11145,
Class I (large) rail carriers are required to submit to the Board
Rail Depreciation Studies. Information in these studies is not
available from any other source. The Board uses the information in
these studies to prescribe depreciation rates.
US Code:
49
USC 11145 Name of Law: Reports by rail carriers, lessors, and
associations
Recently, the Board's staff
reviewed respondents' time and costs to provide the required rail
depreciation to the Board and determined that improvements in
accounting, programming, and information technology (used by these
large companies) has reduced both the hourly and non-hourly burdens
on respondents. These changes are reflected in this ICR.
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that
the collection of information encompassed by this request complies
with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR
1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding
the proposed collection of information, that the certification
covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a
benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control
number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of
these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked
and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.