This figure plots the main AAR car types used (on a tonnage basis) for agricultural products (STCCs 01 farm products, 08 forest products, 09 fresh fish, 20 food or kindred products, and 24 lumber or wood products). These car types include C114 (286,000-pound covered hopper cars), C113 (263,000-pound covered hopper cars), F483 (flat car, load limit of 200,000 pounds), and T107 (a type of tank car), among others. To see more generic car types, use the STB Car Type filter.

Line chart showing tons for corn, soybeans, wheat, soybean cake, and corn syrup over time.

The Surface Transportation Board's Carload Waybill Sample is perhaps the most comprehensive dataset available on railroad movements and trends. More technically, it is a stratified sample of carload waybills for all U.S. rail traffic submitted by those rail carriers terminating 4,500 or more revenue carloads annually. See 49 C.F.R. §§ 1244.1 to 1244.5.

Waybill data have broad applications and usage in national railroad policy and regulations, such as rate cases, costing systems, productivity studies, exemption decisions, and analyses supporting regulations. Waybill data are used by transportation practitioners, consultants, and law firms in preparing verified statements to be submitted in formal proceedings before the Board or other public agencies. Various federal agencies use the Waybill Sample as part of their informational and decision-making framework, and many states use it as a source of information for developing state transportation plans.

STB creates the Public Use Waybill file from the confidential Waybill Sample file. See the attached documents for more information. The "Reference Guide" document contains additional details on the variables and Standard Transportation Commodity Codes (STCC). In the "Creation of the Public Use Waybill Sample" document, STB provides more detail on the public use sample and how it is created. There is also a map of Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) Areas and a document describing the Waybill sampling instructions.

This data set contains rail tariff rates for ethanol by railroad, and train type, for select origin/destination pairs. These data are collected monthly from individual railroad websites.

This line chart shows average terminal dwell times by month and year. Each year is broken out into a separate line, providing a seasonal comparison to the same month across years. By default, terminal dwell times are averaged across railroads and yards. Use the filters to select different dates, railroads, or yards.

Line chart showing weekly refrigerated truck availability across recent years.

Line chart showing average refrigerated truck availability over time. Filterable by date, origin, and destination.

Average rates per mile on the y-axis and week of year on the x-axis, with a separate line for each year to provide a comparison across years.

Line chart showing average weekly refrigerated truck rates, grouped by month and year, to enable a seasonal comparison to recent years. Filterable by region, origin, destination, distance, and commodity.