STB to hold meetings on reporting rail service data

The Surface Transportation Board announced today that its staff will hold informal meetings with stakeholders between November 16, 2015 and December 7, 2015, on proposed rules for reporting railroad service performance data in the pending proceeding United States Rail Service Issues, EP 724.

The meetings will enable the STB to better assess what types of data might be useful to the public, and how individual railroads monitor performance. With measures in place to ensure public notice, fairness, and transparency, the Board is waiving its general prohibition on ex parte or private communications for a limited time in this proceeding.

“This will be the Board’s first permanent collection of service-related data. These informal meetings will allow open and candid conversations between STB staff and stakeholders regarding the highly technical data questions at issue here,” STB Chairman Daniel Elliott said. “Dialogue between stakeholders and STB technical staff is especially valuable and efficient in these informal circumstances, outside of an appearance before the Board.”

The Board’s decision announcing the meetings and providing information for their scheduling in United States Rail Service Issues—Performance Data Reporting, EP 724(Sub-No. 4), can be found on the Board’s website, www.stb.dot.gov, under “E-LIBRARY” / “Decisions & Notices / 11 / 9 / 2015.”