The Surface Transportation Board published an
advance notice of proposed rule making in Monday’s Federal Register concerning how railroads account for the unique costs of transporting hazmat. The STB is proposing to require railroads to report unique costs associated with hazmat shipments separately so that the STB could take them into account in their Uniform Railroad Costing System (URCS).
According to the notice the “Board seeks public comment on whether and how it should improve its informational tools to better identify and attribute the costs of hazardous-material transportation movements” (74 FR 248). Comments are due on or before February 4, 2009
The STB does not handle its public comment submissions through the Regulation.Gov web site. Instead, it still uses an E-FILING link on the Board's Web site, at
http://www.stb.dot.gov. Alternatively individuals can file written comments, but must include 10 copies of all documents, by mailing to:
Surface Transportation Board
Attn: STB Ex Parte No. 681
395 E Street, SW.
Washington, DC 20423-0001.
In addition to the general question of whether or not the Board should proceed with the rule making, the STB asks for certain specific items of information that will be necessary to effectively prepare an appropriate rule. These items include:
The definition of the operations and expenses to be reported,
The definition of a ‘hazmat shipment’ (ie: should it be limited to TIH/PIH shipments),
The identification and definition of operating costs associated with the hazmat
shipments,
The identification and definition of the assets devoted to hazmat operations, and
The identification and definition of the appropriate operating statistic to be used in the URCS to allocate the identified cost (ie: car-miles, revenue ton-miles, etc).
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