Supporting Statement (July 2022) - Urgent Rail Service Issues (to ROCIS)

2140-00XX
July 2022
SUPPORTING STATEMENT
FOR REQUEST OF OMB APPROVAL
UNDER THE PAPERWORK REDUCTION ACT AND 5 C.F.R. § 1320
The Surface Transportation Board (STB or Board) requests emergency approval for the
information collection of Urgent Rail Service Issues.
A. Justification:
1. Need for Information in Collection. This is a request for an emergency clearance for a
new information collection to address the acute and unanticipated service issues currently facing
the U.S. rail industry and network. The collection of this information is essential to the Board’s
mission of regulating the nation’s railroads and facilitating reliable rail service. See 49 U.S.C.
§ 11101(a). Congress has expressly empowered the Board to address immediate service issues.
See, e.g., 49 U.S.C. §§ 1321(b), 11123, and 11145(a). The Board is collecting this information
to be able to timely deal with the unanticipated and urgent service issues facing the U.S. rail
system. Moreover, timely receipt of this information collection is critical for the Board to be
able to use its statutory powers to help remediate the immediate service issues, to guard against
continuing rail service issues, and to promote the reliability of the U.S. rail system.
On April 26 and April 27, 2022, the Board held a two-day public hearing on the recent
significant performance deterioration of the freight rail industry. At the hearing, the Board heard
compelling testimony from shipper and labor witnesses about the severity and dire impacts of
substandard rail performance, in addition to insights presented by U.S. Secretary of
Transportation Pete Buttigieg and U.S. Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Jewel H. Bronaugh. The
Board also heard testimony from BNSF Railway Company (BNSF), CSX Transportation, Inc.
(CSX), Norfolk Southern Railway (NSR), and Union Pacific Railroad (UP) about the causes,
extent, and likely duration of service disruptions, and their remedial initiatives. A recording of
the Board’s April 26 and 27, 2022 hearing in Urgent Issues in Freight Rail Service may be
viewed on the Board’s YouTube page.
In response to the extensive problems described at the hearing, on May 6, 2022, the
Board issued an order requiring the four largest U.S. railroads – BNSF, CSX, NSR, and UP – to
file service recovery plans that would specifically describe their key remedial initiatives and
promote a clearer vantage point into operating conditions on the rail network. Unfortunately,
these four carriers submitted plans that were perfunctory and lacked the level of detail that was
mandated by the Board’s order. The plans generally omitted important information needed to
assure the Board and rail industry stakeholders that the largest railroads are addressing their
deficiencies and have a clear and measurable trajectory for doing so. Of particular concern was
the fact that UP and NSR flatly refused to provide the six-month targets for achieving their
performance goals explicitly required by the Board’s order. Because of the plans’ shortcomings,
the Board finds [found?] it necessary to require the railroads to supplement their plans and
provides explicit further instruction on the critical information they must include.

On June 13, 2022, the Board issued an order directing BNSF, CSX, NSR, and UP to
correct deficiencies in their rail service recovery plans filed in response to a Board order issued
on May 6, 2022. The Board [is also ordering/also ordered??] these carriers to provide additional
information on their actions to improve service and communications with their customers as well
as additional detailed information to demonstrate their monthly progress in increasing the size of
their work forces to levels needed to provide reliable rail service.
2. Use of Data Collected. This short-term collection includes the collection of more
detailed service recovery plans from the four largest U.S. rail carriers along with bi-weekly
progress reports for the next six months in an effort to address service deficiencies that are
currently impacting the public, businesses, and the U.S. economy. It also requires/required? all
seven of the Class I (large) rail carriers operating in the United States to report more
comprehensive and customer-centric performance metrics and employment data for a six-month
period.
Under 49 U.S.C. §§ 1321(b), 11123, and 11145(a) and 49 C.F.R. part 1250, the Board
will use the data collected to address the acute and unanticipated rail service issues currently
facing the U.S. rail industry and network. The Board will use the more comprehensive and
customer-centric performance metrics and employment data to better inform its assessment of
actions that may be warranted to address the acute service issues facing the rail industry. Failure
to receive emergency approval could impede the Board’s immediate efforts to help facilitate the
resolution of the rail-related supply-chain issues impacting the U.S. rail network and the U.S.
economy as a whole.
Specifically, in its May 6 decision, the Board required that the carriers file service
recovery plans that do the following:
1. Explain the specific actions that each carrier will take to improve service. As part of
this information, the Board made clear its expectation that each carrier:
a. Explain how it intends to remedy its current labor shortage and avoid future
labor shortages; and
b. Report on any of the carrier’s plans to lift current velocity restrictions, as well
as any plans to increase the power on its through trains—rather than to limit
the use of that power—so that each such train has the capacity to travel at
track speed, and if there is no such plan, to explain why.
2. Identify the specific metrics—and associated targets—by which each carrier will
evaluate its progress toward improvements in service. The Board directed that each
carrier:
a. Explain the carrier’s selection of each key service performance indicator,
including: (i) how each is defined, (ii) what it indicates, and (iii) why it is
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b.
c.
d.
e.

selected;
Submit a time series of key service performance indicators for the past
36 months;
Include a target that the carrier expects to hit at the end of the six-month
reporting period for each indicator selected;
Include, at a minimum, an indicator and target for FMLM service and trip
plan compliance (TPC) performance; and
Explain how the carrier arrived at, and will meet, each target.

In its decision, the Board explained that the service recovery plans would “promote
industry-wide transparency, accountability, and improvements in rail service.” But, after the
carriers provided insufficient data, the Board issued a follow-up decision on June 13, 2022,
providing additional guidance. Among other things, the June 13 decision required the carriers to
provide labor force targets for employees actually on the job in six months and in one year (using
the same timeframe starting point as their key service performance indicator targets), broken out
by transportation (train and engine), maintenance of way and structures, maintenance of
equipment and stores, customer service employees, and all remaining personnel.
The Board also ordered the carriers to provide detailed information about their plans to
incentivize hiring and retention, including identifying—with specificity—the policies and
incentives they intend to use to maintain an adequate labor supply along with an explanation of
how those measures will attract and retain personnel. Further, the carriers were required to
report data about trainees and employee absences, and the carriers were required to include, in
their monthly employment data and service recovery plans: (i) how many trainees entered
training; (ii) how many trainees dropped out of training; (iii) how many trainees completed
training; and (iv) how many trainees are currently in training. Finally, the Board directed the
carriers to provide additional context for their employment numbers, such as by including data in
their plans and progress reports on the daily average number of employees not available for
service, and if feasible, the cause for such unavailability (e.g., vacation, COVID-related,
unexcused absences).
The carriers were also directed to supplement their original responses and to specifically
address the following issues: (1) whether utilizing additional power on through trains would
allow the railroad to maintain velocity when power at existing levels breaks down; and
(2) whether removing velocity restrictions, or otherwise adding power, would improve service
and reduce congestion, and, if not, why. The Board is requesting this collection of information
so that it and the public will have a clearer sense as to the carriers’ pre-pandemic performance
and week-to-week variability and will allow the Board and others to better evaluate the
immediate adequacy of the carriers’ service and ongoing recovery.
The service recovery plans, together with the additional requested information, are
crucial components of the Board’s active monitoring of the Nation’s freight rail industry and
particularly the Board’s focused efforts to ensure that the largest carriers overcome the
significant service challenges affecting many rail users and the public. The Board will use the
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data collected to ensure the railroads are doing everything within their means to transport
commodities that are crucial to the public welfare, such as animal feed, food ingredients, fuel
products and fertilizers, and critical chemicals.
3. Reduction through Improved Technology. The Board expects all respondents to file
each collection electronically.
4. Identification of Duplication. No other federal agency collects the information in
these collections, and the information in these collections is not available from any other source.
5. Minimizing Burden for 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 $900,000,000.
6. Consequences if Collection not Conducted or Conducted Less Frequently. Without
this collection, the Board could not regulate the rail industry at this time of urgent and
unanticipated rail service issues and could not ensure the rail network reliability, which is a
critical part of the Board’s mission.
7. Special Circumstances. No special circumstances apply to this collection.
8. Compliance with 5 C.F.R. § 1320.8. The Board published a Federal Register notice
(87 Fed. Reg. 33868 (June 3, 2022)), which provided for a 14-day comment period. After the
Board’s June 13 decision, the Board published an amended and updated Federal Register notice
(87 Fed Reg. 36569 (June 17, 2022)), which provided for an additional 14-day comment period
regarding this collection, with specific reference to concerns detailed in the Paperwork
Reduction Act, 44 U.S.C. §§ 3501-3521 and Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
regulations at 5 C.F.R. § 1320.8(d)(3).
9. Payments or Gifts. The Board does not provide any payment or gifts for this
collection.
10. Assurance of Confidentiality. The information in this collection will be filed in
Docket No. EP 770 (Sub-No. 1) and will be publicly available and searchable here.
11. Sensitive Information. No sensitive information of a personal nature is requested.
12. Estimated Burden Hours. 2,964 hours, as provided in Table – Total Estimated
Burden Hours below (using the sum of estimated hours per response x number of annual
responses for each type of filing)
Table – Total Estimated Burden Hours
Type of filing
Estimated
Hours per

Number of
Respondents
4

Estimated
Frequency

Total burden
hours

Response
80
8
8
0.5
8
16
8

Service Recovery Plans*
4
1
Historical Data*
4
1
Service Progress Reports*
4
13
Individual Conference Calls*
4
6
Weekly Performance Data
7
26
Monthly Employment Data
7
6
Supplement to Employment
7
1
Data
Total Burden Hours
* These sub-collections only apply to the four largest Class I railroads

320
32
416
12
1,456
672
56
2,964

13. Estimated Total Cost to Respondents. There are no non-hourly burden costs for this
collection. The itemized collections may be filed electronically.
14. Annualized Cost to the Federal Government. As provided in Table – Total
Government Hours/Costs below, we estimate that the maximum cost to the Board of receiving
and reviewing the filings listed would total no more than 602 staff hours (based on 2022 hourly
rates, approximately $48,256.32).
Table – Total Estimated FTEs
Type of filing
Employee
Estimated
Estimated
GS- or ES- FTE Hours/ Number of
level
Response
Responses
Service Recovery Plans*
GS-14
4
4
Historical Data*
GS-14
4
4
Service Progress Reports*
GS-14
2
4
Individual Conference Calls*
GS-14
0.5
4
Weekly Performance Data
GS-14
2
7
Monthly Employment Data
GS-14
4
7
Supplement to Employment
GS-14
2
7
Data
Total FTE Hours
* These sub-collections only apply to the four largest Class I railroads

Estimated
Frequency

Total Govt.
FTE Hours

1
1
13
6
26
6
1

16
16
104
12
364
168
14
694

15. Explanation of Program Changes or Adjustments. This ICR is due to the Board
seeking to better understand and react to urgent and unanticipated rail service issues.
16. Plans for tabulation and publication. The information in this collection that is not
confidential will be posted on the Board’s website, located at www.stb.gov.
17. Display of expiration date for OMB approval. An expiration date for this collection
will be published in the Federal Register when the collection is approved by OMB.
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18. Exceptions to Certification Statement. Not applicable.

B. Collections of Information Employing Statistical Methods.
Not applicable.

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