Surface Transportation Board - Definition and Overview

The Surface Transportation Board (STB) was created by the Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act of 1995 at the same time the Interstate Commerce Commission was destroyed. The STB was created to replace the ICC, which had been charged with playing to the interests of the trucking industry and being generally useless due to deregulation.

The STB is an economic regulatory agency that Congress created to resolve railroad rate and service disputes and reviewing proposed railroad mergers. The STB is decisionally independent, although it is administratively affiliated with the Department of Transportation.

The STB serves as both an adjudicatory and a regulatory body. The agency has jurisdiction over:

• Railroad rate and service issues
• Rail restructuring transactions (mergers, line sales, new line construction, and old line abandonments)
• Certain trucking company, moving van, and non-contiguous ocean shipping company rate matters
• Certain intercity passenger bus company structure, financial, and operational matters
• Rates and services of certain pipelines not regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Offices

• The Office of Compliance and Enforcement monitors rail operations throughout the United States and enforces regulations over rail and certain non-rail common carriers in the United States. This office also collects and makes available tariffs from non-Contiguous domestic water carriers.

• The Office of Congressional and Public Services is the STB's outreach arm. It works with Members of Congress, the public, and the media to answer questions and provide information about the STB's procedures and actions and about transportation regulation more generally.

• The Office of Economics, Environmental Analysis and Administration houses several functions. In addition to handling administrative matters, such as personnel and budget, this Office also houses two sections: (1) the Section of Environmental Analysis, which is responsible for undertaking environmental reviews of proposed STB actions in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act and other environmental laws and making environmental recommendations to the STB, and (2) the Section of Economics, which analyzes rate cases, conducts economic and financial analyses of the railroad industry, and audits Class I railroads.

• The STB Office of Proceedings researches and prepares draft decisions.

• The STB Office of General Counsel provides legal advice to the STB and defends agency actions that are challenged in court.

External links

• Surface Transportation Board (http://www.stb.dot.gov)
• Text of Interstate Commerce Commision Termination Act of 1995 (http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/49/10706.html)
• The United States Department of Transportation (http://www.dot.gov/)