Surface Transportation Board

In July 2025, more than two and a half years after Amtrak called on the Surface Transportation Board (STB) to initiate an investigation into “substandard” customer on-time performance for Sunset…

The Surface Transportation Board (STB) on March 31 presented its calculation for the change in railroad productivity for the 2020-24 averaging period. Comments are due by April 15.

The Fertilizer Institute (TFI) and the Alliance for Chemical Distribution (ACD) have filed separate letters with the Surface Transportation Board (STB) that respectively request all six Class I CEOs to…

In the opinion of the late President Ronald Regan, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’” Among railroaders,…

The Surface Transportation Board (STB) has adopted for second-quarter 2026 the rail cost adjustment factor (RCAF), which is defined as “an index formulated to represent changes in railroad costs incurred…

So it was, following a dark night highway-rail grade crossing accident, that the train’s conductor swore under oath he was waving a lantern “back and forth” prior to the automobile…

The Surface Transportation Board on March 13, 2026, responding to separate letters filed Sept. 30, 2025 by Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific about “specific concerns with respect to service commitments…

Metra on Dec. 1, 2025, advised the Surface Transportation Board (STB) that “despite concerted and ongoing efforts,” no agreement has been reached on the conditions and compensation for the Chicagoland…

The Surface Transportation Board (STB) in a March 12 decision authorized Union Pacific (UP) to construct and operate approximately six miles of new rail line in Maricopa County, Ariz., subject…

The International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers – Transportation Division (SMART-TD) on March 3 sent a letter to senators and representatives, urging them to support the…

Surface Transportation Board (STB) nominee and Republican Richard Kloster received a favorable vote from the Senate Commerce Committee March 12 to fill one of two vacant seats on the five-member…

This is the fourth in a five-part series about railroad growth coming from truck conversions focused on the criticality of rail-to-rail competition to achieve Union Pacific’s growth outcome stated in…

WATCHING WASHINGTON, RAILWAY AGE MARCH 2026 ISSUE: For Surface Transportation Board (STB) Vice Chairperson Republican Michelle A. Schultz, preparation and persistence paved what likely was an already preordained career path. …

The Railroads for National Defense (RND) Program within the U.S. Army Transportation Command has submitted comments in response to the Surface Transportation Board’s (STB) decision last month proposing what it…

The Surface Transportation Board (STB) has denied a State of California agency’s application for third-party, or “adverse,” abandonment of Mendocino Railway’s (MRY) approximately 40-mile stub-ended rail line so that it…

Union Pacific (UP) and Norfolk Southern (NS) submitted a letter of intent for their major merger application refiling on Feb. 17, the deadline the Surface Transportation Board (STB) set earlier…

Surface Transportation Board (STB) Chairman Patrick Fuchs has released a progress report on outstanding proceedings. The move, the STB said Feb. 6, continues the agency’s “efforts to promote transparency and…

Farrukh Bezar and Railway Age Editor-In-Chief William C. Vantuono discuss the proposed Union Pacific-Norfolk merger to create the first east-west transcontinental Class I railroad in the U.S. Bezar offers his…

Americans experience the economy through reliability and affordability—not through the Surface Transportation Board’s (STB) document review process. When a factory stops production because railcars arrive three days late, consumers do…

FREIGHT RAIL WASHINGTON OUTLOOK, RAILWAY AGE FEBRUARY 2026 ISSUE: Federal oversight and investment top the list of Washington issues beyond UP-NS, but tech policy also merits scrutiny in this midterm election…