Presumed-outgoing STB Chairman Robert Primus (yes, the President-elect is expected to replace him) recently wrote to Association of American Railroads President and CEO Ian Jefferies taking issue with what he termed “concern about the quality of AAR’s data submissions in recent years associated with the Rail Cost Adjustment Factor (RCAF).” Jefferies responded by calling out Primus as choosing to “forego information gathering, fact checking, and basic courtesy and cooperation in favor of publicity.”
Primus pointed to what he complained is “a recent troubling trend of the substandard data associated with AAR’s RCAF that has called into question its accuracy and dependability.” Download his one-page rant, which STB publicized in a press release, below.
AAR—taking the high road—quietly responded to Primus’ rivet-counting (model railroaders and railfans will be familiar with that term) with a detailed, data-driven, multi-page response for which it did not issue a press release. Railway Age obtained a copy of the response, which can be downloaded below. It includes an Independent Accountant’s Report by RSM US LLP.
“I was surprised to receive your letter dated November 26, 2024, and to learn of your simultaneous press release,” Jefferies responded. “Your letter significantly overstates the implications of minor procedural adjustments to RCAF filings. Historically, issues of this nature have been addressed constructively through established channels of communication, rather than escalated publicly in a manner that risks undermining the productive relationship between AAR and the STB. It is unclear whether the concerns you describe are shared by others on the Board. Regardless, they were not shared with AAR prior to your letter. It is unfortunate that you decided to forego information gathering, fact checking and basic courtesy and cooperation in favor of publicity.”
“It is unclear whether the concerns you describe are shared by others on the Board.” Trust me, they’re not.
“While Mr. Primus, who controls the STB docket, treats his oft-missed statutory deadlines as if they are canapés passed around informally during cocktail hour, he remains fixated on lecturing CEOs as if he were running for an unannounced political office,” comments Frank N. Wilner, our Capitol Hill Contributing Editor. “This episode could have—and should have—been avoided simply by the STB’s chief economist telephoning the AAR’s chief economist rather than Mr. Primus seeking to turn a minor tweak to RCAF reports into an investigation into bank fraud.”
