A delayed rail shipment and an unclear account of that delay are different problems. The Surface Transportation Board addressed the second through a permanent reporting rule published December 5, 2016. Looking back from December 6, its ethical value lies in making performance open to examination without claiming that disclosure itself resolves the disruption experienced by people relying on freight. [2016-29131][2016-10442]

The May 5 supplemental proposal illustrates the care a measurement requires. Its grain-order design separated late orders from filled orders and distinguished cancellations by shippers from cancellations by railroads. Those distinctions resist an easy assignment of blame from a single total. They remain proposal history, not proof that the entire draft design became a final requirement. [2016-29131][2016-10442]

The adopted framework requires reporting railroads to explain methods with their first filing and update explanations when methods change. It also preserves limits on comparison: Kansas City Southern provides system-wide rather than state-level grain information, and the final grain-order requirements differ from the proposed list. Honest use of the figures means keeping such boundaries visible rather than treating every number as equivalent. [2016-29131][2016-10442]

Class I railroads and the Chicago Transportation Coordination Office through its Class I members are covered. The rule specified January 29, 2017 effectiveness and February 8 initial reporting, with weekly and other reporting frequencies. These two documents belong to one Board policy process. They support a duty of intelligible disclosure, not a verdict that carriers are trustworthy or untrustworthy, and not evidence that shipments have already become more dependable. [2016-29131][2016-10442]

Source documents

  1. United States Rail Service Issues-Performance Data Reportinghttps://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2016-12-05/html/2016-29131.htm
  2. United States Rail Service Issues-Performance Data Reportinghttps://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2016-05-05/html/2016-10442.htm