Before the U.S. Surface Transportation Board 

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STB Ex Parte No. 724 (Sub-No. 4) 

UNITED STATES RAIL SERVICE ISSUES—PERFORMANCE DATA REPORTING 

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 Comments of the 

 U.S. Department of Agriculture 

 _________________________________ 

Edward Avalos 

Under Secretary 

Marketing and Regulatory Programs 

U.S. Department of Agriculture 

Washington, D.C. 20250 

Date: March 2, 2015 
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Authority and Interest 

The Secretary of Agriculture is charged with the responsibility under the Agricultural 

Adjustment Act of 1938 and the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 to represent the interests of 

agricultural producers and shippers in improving transportation services and facilities by, among 

other things, initiating and participating in Surface Transportation Board proceedings involving 

rates, charges, tariffs, practices, and services. 

Introduction

The U.S. Surface Transportation Board (Board) is proposing to establish new regulations 

requiring all Class I railroads and the Chicago Transportation Coordination Office to report 

certain service performance metrics on a weekly basis. The Board is inviting public comment on 

whether to establish new regulations for permanent reporting and, if necessary, how to revise and 

improve the existing data reporting structure. 

The Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been involved with the circumstances surrounding 

this proceeding since rail service problems first surfaced in 2013, working closely with shippers, 

railroads, and other government agencies. Throughout the rail service crisis, the most recurring 

requests were data related—providing data and analysis to stakeholders and policy officials to 

assist in evaluating rail service progress and determining whether preferential service was being 

given to some commodities. USDA is encouraged by the Board initiating this proposed 

rulemaking and supports regulations requiring permanent reporting of this data. 

The Importance of Data to Markets 

In this age of information, business decisions rely on the availability of complex data. In this 

vein, shippers have expressed a desire for more publicly available data concerning rail 

performance metrics because these data are necessary for them to plan logistics, minimize 

economic harm to operations and revenues, assist with business planning, and better serve their 

own customers. This type of data is not only necessary during times of rail service problems, but 

is essential on a regular basis. 

Throughout the duration of the 2013/2014 rail service issues, one of the most frequent and 

pressing requests from USDA’s leadership and stakeholders, as well as from other governmental 

agencies with which USDA cooperates, was for any and all data related to the rail service 

problems. USDA’s ability to collect and provide data and analysis was limited to the extent that 

data were available. USDA believes that sufficient data are necessary for research, policy 

analysis, or market reports, and generally as a prerequisite to the efficient functioning of free 

markets. USDA devotes a considerable amount of resources towards the collection and 

dissemination of data, used across the country and around the world by governments, producers, 

and other market participants to increase efficiency, minimize waste, and broadly maximize 

revenues and social utility. While economic markets are highly interdependent and spread across 

many sectors of the economy, USDA’s jurisdictional authority is not. USDA must rely upon the 

voluntary willingness of railroads to provide and/or the legal authority of the Board to obtain 

transportation market data critical to the agricultural sector of the economy. 
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As the Board noted in its proposal, the weekly railroad performance metrics have allowed rail 

stakeholders to monitor the industry’s performance in near real-time and develop baseline 

performance data. It is important to establish baselines from which to gauge future events. This 

allows rail stakeholders to know the relevance and context of specific data, and whether the data 

are a cause for alarm or simply a reflection of normal operations. Thus, performance metrics 

need to be collected on a continuous basis and not just when needed. Furthermore, data 

discrepancies need to be eliminated so that data are comparable across railroads and time 

periods. 

USDA recognizes that performance metrics may not be used all the time nor appreciated until a 

particular concern arises. However, in times when data are necessary, analyzing data trends is 

only meaningful if the data series is intact and clearly defined. USDA believes the Board and 

rail stakeholders should consider what data could be most helpful in addressing a variety of 

issues so that when these issues arise, a robust data series is available to help mitigate the 

disruption of rail service. Like any safety mechanism, it must remain in place at all times even 

though it may only be needed infrequently. 

USDA believes that the availability of railroad performance metrics on a regular basis may even 

be able to avert or mitigate rail service issues before they become fully realized. The more 

information that is available to shippers will help them to begin making contingency plans ahead 

of any perceived transportation issue, rather than scrambling in a reactionary nature to achieve 

second-best outcomes. Such proactive actions by shippers may even lessen the degree of service 

issues, resulting in a better outcome for both railroads and shippers. 

Data Reporting is Beneficial to Shippers and Railroads 

To be certain, USDA and its stakeholders benefitted greatly from the data reporting provided by 

railroads and further expanded upon under the direction of the Board during the rail service 

problems of 2013/2014. USDA believes the Board’s proposed data collection requirements will 

be to the long-term benefit of both shippers and railroads and supports the Board’s proposed new 

regulations to be codified at 49 C.F.R. § 1250.1-1250.3, which would make permanent the 

weekly reporting of railroad performance metrics begun in October 2014. USDA has especially 

found helpful the performance data in subsection 1250.3(a)(7)-(8), which has provided a detailed 

State-level understanding of grain movements and backlogs. Over time, USDA foresees this 

information becoming even more valuable as a baseline is established by which USDA may 

more effectively respond to policy requests concerning the movement of grain by rail. 

USDA, as well as other government agencies, relies on data to inform and direct policies and 

recommendations. When USDA is asked to make policy level decisions and recommendations 

regarding railroads and agricultural shippers, substantive data ensures USDA’s decisions and 

recommendations are sufficiently informed. Performance metrics helped USDA leverage 

support for shippers while rail service was deteriorating, but also helped USDA inform policymakers as rail service improved. 

The likelihood of overcoming a transportation disruption increases when full knowledge of the 

causes, symptoms, expected duration, and possible mitigation strategies are laid bare. 

Knowledge is half the battle; without it, attempts to correct transportation disruptions by policy 
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officials could inadvertently cause additional harm to railroads and shippers instead. Increased 

transparency is helpful for both shippers and railroads with regards to government policy but also 

in establishing trust between the two groups. 

USDA Supports Reporting on Infrastructure Projects 

While railroads ultimately possess the ability to set the amount of available network capacity, the 

necessary decision making, logistics, funding, and construction projects result in years of 

advance planning and actual execution before new capacity can be added to the network. At 

present, such projects are under development with benefits already beginning to accrue from 

recently completed projects. Because markets are in a constant state of fluctuation between the 

forces of supply and demand, there will always be a need on the part of shippers for indicators to 

judge the current state of the rail network in order to make market-based decisions, not just in 

times when rail performance has slipped. Consequently, USDA supports the Board’s newly 

proposed requirement that railroads provide a quarterly listing and update of all work-in-progress 

on major rail infrastructure projects in subsection 1250.3(d). 

USDA’s Recommendations for Additional Data and Data Reporting 

In addition to the data items outlined by the Board in this proposed rulemaking, USDA is 

recommending three additional items for consideration, as provided in the following three 

subsections. 

Weekly Commodity Carloadings 

In 2008, during Ex Parte 677 – Common Carrier Obligation of Railroads, shippers testified that 

in preceding years a shortage of railroad network capacity had affected the movement of 

commodities, resulting in network congestion and denial of service, which raised concerns over 

how the ability to price movements affected the railroads’ common carrier obligation. Similarly, 

agricultural shippers have brought forth concerns over whether oil, energy, intermodal, or other 

sectors were given priority over agricultural movements during the most recent rail service 

disruptions in 2013/2014. Even more broadly, agricultural shippers continue to question whether 

their rail service declines disproportionately in comparison to other sectors during any rail 

capacity “crunch” and not just during major slowdowns. This has again raised the question over 

how a railroad’s common carrier obligation should affect service among different customer 

bases. As was expressed then in Ex Parte 677 and recently during Ex Parte 724 by agricultural 

shippers, even a great network infrastructure does nothing for shippers who cannot obtain 

railcars, locomotives, or timely service. 

During the past year, agricultural shippers approached USDA numerous times, voicing the 

concern that their rail service had suffered more sharply compared to other commodity sectors. 

Until the Board began requiring the reporting by all Class I railroads in October 2014, USDA 

had only anecdotal evidence—agricultural shippers supported this claim through their own 

individual experiences while railroads denied this claim by contending all of their customers 

were complaining about poor service. There was simply no hard data to substantiate or refute 

shipper complaints. 
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While USDA appreciates the reporting requirements the Board has proposed to adopt on a 

permanent basis, USDA believes that weekly carloadings for commodities in addition to grain, 

as laid out in subsection 1250.3(a)(7), would be helpful in providing additional transparency. 

These are already provided to the Board in detail on a quarterly basis in the Freight Commodity 

Statistics. However, a simplified format suitable for a weekly report could provide data on 

carloadings by major commodity sector and for individual commodities with high volumes, such 

as petroleum, grains and oilseeds, coal, and intermodal. USDA believes such reporting would 

help alleviate shipper concerns over any perceived preferential treatment and work towards 

fostering trust and goodwill. 

Railcar Auction Markets 

During the past year, bids in the primary and secondary railcar markets reached unprecedented 

levels, essentially doubling the cost of shipping grain by rail between some origins and 

destinations. USDA collects weekly data on prices in the primary and secondary markets, which 

serve as indicators of grain railcar supply and demand. While the details of these transactions 

are proprietary, USDA believes information on how many of these service contracts are 

auctioned each month and how many are being filled each week would provide clarity as to how 

reflective any premiums being paid are of the overall market for grain by rail. Without 

additional context, simply tracking the pricing of service contracts does not reveal the full extent 

to which a problem in railcar supply may be developing for shipping grain by rail. Knowing 

how much grain is moving under contract can help separate speculation from an actual railcar 

shortage. USDA believes the substantial price and persistence of transactions taking place in the 

primary and secondary markets throughout last year warrants greater consideration. A first step 

would be additional transparency through the aggregated total amount of these contracts being 

offered and filled each week by all railroads. 

User-Friendly Data Portal 

USDA believes a more accessible data portal on the Board’s website would be helpful to its 

stakeholders and other parties interested in or affected by railroad operations. In the course of 

directing interested stakeholders to the Board’s website, shippers often find it difficult to locate 

specific performance data on their own. Instead of navigating the portals on the Board’s website 

and then having to identify and sort through individual railroad filings hidden among many other 

related filings, a permanent home for the performance data on the Board’s website would further 

enhance the transparency and accessibility sought by the Board. One suggested location would 

be a webpage dedicated to “Performance Data” that could quickly and easily be navigated from 

the “Industry Data” webpage. As a further suggestion, weekly performance data could be 

inputted on a weekly basis into comprehensive spreadsheets differentiated by railroad, showing 

all available weekly performance metrics as a time series. Otherwise, the proliferation of 

individual weekly updates, especially in PDF format, would quickly render the data 

impracticable to all but the most dedicated researchers willing to manually input each separate 

file. USDA presumes the railroads and/or the Board are already compiling weekly performance 

data as a time series for their own use, and that including this more accessible format on the 

Board’s website would prove only minimally burdensome.