Weekly train speeds data from the Surface Transportation Board's (STB) Rail Service Metrics. The STB began collecting service metrics from railroads in October 2014. As part of their submission to the STB, railroads provide data on the average speed of their trains (in miles per hour), broken out by commodity/type such as automotive, coal, crude oil, ethanol, grain, intermodal, manifest, etc. Railroads also report a “system average” train speed. According to the STB rulemaking, train speed should be measured for line-haul movements between terminals. The average speed for each train type should be calculated by dividing total train miles by total hours operated.

Weekly carloads from the Surface Transportation Board’s (STB) Rail Service Metrics. Each week, the seven Class I railroads submit originated and received carloads by 23 major commodity groups, such as grain, grain mill, primary forest products, chemicals, coal, containers, trailers, etc.

While the STB began collecting some service metrics from railroads (e.g., trains speeds, origin dwell, and terminal dwell) in October 2014, it did not start collecting carload data until March 2017 through a new rulemaking.

Weekly terminal dwell time data from the Surface Transportation Board’s (STB) Rail Service Metrics. The STB began collecting service metrics from railroads in October 2014. As part of their submission to the STB, railroads provide average terminal dwell time, measured in hours, excluding cars on runthrough trains (i.e., cars that arrive at, and depart from, a terminal on the same through train) for the carrier’s system and its 10 largest terminals in terms of railcars processed. (Terminal dwell is the average time a car resides at a specified terminal location expressed in hours.)

Weekly origin dwell time data from the Surface Transportation Board’s (STB) Rail Service Metrics. The STB began collecting service metrics from railroads in October 2014. As part of their submission to STB, railroads provide "weekly average dwell time at origin for loaded unit train shipments sorted by grain, coal, automotive, crude oil, ethanol, and all other unit trains. For the purposes of this data element, dwell time refers to the time period from release of a unit train at origin or interchange location until actual movement by the receiving carrier. The data is to be reported by the receiving carrier."

Weekly grain cars loaded and billed data from the Surface Transportation Board's (STB) Rail Service Metrics. As part of their submission to the STB, railroads provide data broken out by state on the total number of grain cars loaded and billed. STB requests railroads include cars in shuttle service; dedicated train service; reservation, lottery, open and other ordering systems; and private cars. The reported cars are separated into three components: (1) total grain cars loaded and billed for shuttle service (or dedicated train service); (2) total grain cars loaded and billed for ordering systems other than shuttle (or dedicated train) service; and (3) the combined total (that is, the total grain cars loaded and billed for all ordering systems).

Grain includes the following Standard Transportation Commodity Codes (STCCs): 01131 (barley), 01132 (corn), 01133 (oats), 01135 (rye), 01136 (sorghum grains), 01137 (wheat), 01139 (grain, not elsewhere classified), 01144 (soybeans), 01341 (beans, dry), 01342 (peas, dry), and 01343 (cowpeas, lentils, or lupines).

Grain shuttle trip data from the Surface Transportation Board's (STB) Rail Service Metrics. Each month, the railroads with dedicated grain shuttle service (BNSF, UP, and CP) provide information on the number of turns their grain shuttles make per month. Shuttle trips per month (TPM) should be reported on an average basis. For example, if a particular train set makes three origin to destination moves and another train set makes five origin to destination moves during the same calendar month, the railroad’s average TPM would be four.

The data applies only to those carriers operating grain unit trains in shuttle service. STB eliminated the requirement for carriers with (non-shuttle) dedicated grain trains to report trips per month "because the disparate data carriers could provide on that type of service would not provide the Board insight into service beyond the velocity data collected elsewhere." STB instructs, "in the first report of each month, railroads operating grain shuttles are required to report their average train trips per month for their system and key destination regions versus planned trips per month for their system and key regions for the previous month."

While STB collected related shuttle trip data as part of its initial collection in October 2014, those data included non-shuttle grain trains and, thus, are not directly comparable with the set beginning March 29, 2017.

Weekly "cars on line" data from the Surface Transportation Board's (STB) Rail Service Metrics. The STB began collecting service metrics from railroads in October 2014. As part of their submission to the STB, railroads provide data on the average (daily) number of cars on line, broken out by car type such as "box," "covered hopper," "gondola," "intermodal," "multilevel (automotive)," "open hopper," "tank," and "other." According to the STB, "each railroad shall average its daily on-line inventory of freight cars. Articulated cars should be counted as a single unit. Cars on private tracks (e.g., at a customer’s facility) should be counted on the last railroad on which they were located. Maintenance-of-way cars and other cars in railroad service should be excluded."

Weekly average number of trains holding per day from the Surface Transportation Board's (STB) Rail Service Metrics. Data is broken out by train type (intermodal, grain unit, coal unit, automotive unit, crude oil unit, ethanol unit, other unit, and manifest) and by cause (crew, locomotive power, or other). To arrive at these figures, railroads are instructed to run a daily same-time snapshot and then calculate the weekly averages.

Weekly "cars held" data from the Surface Transportation Board's (STB) Rail Service Metrics. As part of their submission to the STB, railroads provide data on the average daily number of loaded and empty cars, operating in normal movement and billed to an origin or destination, which have not moved in more than 48 hours. The data is broken out by service type: intermodal, grain, coal, crude oil, automotive, ethanol, fertilizer, or all other. In order to derive the daily averages for the reporting week, carriers are requested to run a same-time snapshot each day of the reporting week, capturing cars within each category that have not moved in 48 hours or more. The number of cars captured on the daily snapshot for each category should be added, and then divided by the number of days in the reporting week (typically seven days). In deriving this data, carriers should include cars in normal service anywhere on their system, but should not include cars placed at a customer facility; in constructive placement; placed for interchange to another carrier; in bad order status; in storage; or operating in railroad service (e.g., ballast).

Fertilizer is defined by the following 14 Standard Transportation Commodity Codes (STCCs): 2871236, 2871235, 2871238, 2819454, 2812534, 2818426, 2819815, 2818170, 2871315, 2818142, 2818146, 2871244, 2819173, and 2871451. STCC 287 covers agricultural chemicals and STCC 281 covers industrial inorganic or organic chemicals (excluding pesticides).

Weekly grain car orders (for manifest service) data from the Surface Transportation Board's (STB) Rail Service Metrics. As part of their submission to the STB, railroads provide data on the running totals of grain car orders placed versus grain car orders filled by State for cars moving in manifest service (as opposed to unit train service). In addition, STB requests the railroads report the number of unfilled orders that are 1-10 days overdue and 11+ days overdue, as measured from the due date for placement under the carrier’s governing tariff.

"Grain" includes the following Standard Transportation Commodity Codes (STCCs): 01131 (barley), 01132 (corn), 01133 (oats), 01135 (rye), 01136 (sorghum grains), 01137 (wheat), 01139 (grain, not elsewhere classified), 01144 (soybeans), 01341 (beans, dry), 01342 (peas, dry), and 01343 (cowpeas, lentils, or lupines).