Surface Transportation Board August 2016 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Notice is hereby given of a meeting of the National Grain Car Council (NGCC), pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act, 5 U.S.C., app. 2 10(a)(2).

Through this supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking (Supplemental NPR), the Surface Transportation Board (Board) is revising its proposal to eliminate the ``make-whole adjustment'' that is currently applied as part of our general purpose costing system, the Uniform Railroad Costing System (URCS). The notice of proposed rulemaking (NPR) in this proceeding, issued on February 4, 2013, explained that when disaggregating data and calculating system-average unit costs in Phase II, URCS does not fully take into account the economies of scale realized from larger shipment sizes, necessitating an adjustment in Phase III. This subsequent adjustment in Phase III, referred to as the make-whole adjustment, produces a step function and does not appropriately reflect operating costs and economies of scale. To better address this problem and related issues, the Board is now proposing to modify certain inputs into Phase II of URCS and to modify certain cost calculations in Phase III of URCS in order to eliminate the make-whole adjustment. The Board is also proposing certain other related changes to URCS, including proposals for locomotive unit-miles (LUM) and train miles allocations, which would result in more appropriate rail movement costs.

As part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork burdens, and as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, (PRA), the Surface Transportation Board (STB or Board) gives notice that it is requesting from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval of an extension for the information collections required under rail or water carrier equipment liens (recordations), under water carrier tariffs, and under rail agricultural contract summaries. The information collections are described in more detail below. The Board previously published a notice about this collection in the Federal Register. 81 FR 26,302 (May 2, 2016). That notice allowed for a 60-day public review and comment period. No comments were received.

In this decision, the Board grants in part a petition for rulemaking filed by the National Industrial Transportation League seeking revised reciprocal switching regulations. The Board proposes new regulations governing reciprocal switching in Docket No. EP 711 (Sub-No. 1), which would allow a party to seek a reciprocal switching prescription that is either practicable and in the public interest or necessary to provide competitive rail service.

The Surface Transportation Board (Board) is withdrawing the proposed Policy Statement (80 FR 80878) previously issued in this docket regarding complaint proceedings under 49 U.S.C. 24308(f) and related issues under 49 U.S.C. 24308(c).