This dataset shows monthly ethanol rail movements for the 5 major Petroleum Administration for Defense Districts (PADDs).

This page shows visualizations of the Surface Transportation Board's (STB) weekly Rail Service Metrics, with a focus on agricultural service metrics. It includes visualizations showing train speeds, dwell times, unfilled grain car orders, and others.

This dataset shows monthly biodiesel rail movements for the 5 major Petroleum Administration for Defense Districts (PADDs).

This story shows Brazilian transportation costs of moving grain from inland elevators to ports and for export to Europe and China.

This figure use the Public Use Carload Waybill Sample to plot the tonnage hauled over different distance bands: 500 miles or less; 501 to 1,000 miles; 1,001 to 1,500 miles, and more than 1,500 miles. The filter can be changed to show these tonnages for different commodities (default includes corn, soybeans, and wheat), and for specific origin/destination BEA codes.

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.

This view aggregates tonnages from the Public Use Carload Waybill Sample and generates shipment size categories from the number of carloads field.

Fuel surcharge data is collected monthly from individual railroad websites. Fuel surcharges apply per mile per car. They are typically billed on top of tariff rates, but note that tariff- and contract-specific fuel surcharges may differ from the reported surcharge. For instance, BNSF publishes three separate fuel surcharge series, based on different strike prices. Their $1.25 strike price was in effect on some grain tariffs prior to March 2011, when the $2.50 strike price calculation went into effect. In February 2015, BNSF removed the fuel surcharge from its grain tariffs. In January 2021, BNSF added the fuel surcharge back to its grain tariffs at the $3.25 strike price. All three series are included in this dataset.

The dataset contains weekly rail service metrics from the Surface Transportation Board (STB). The STB began collecting some service metrics from railroads in October 2014 and issued a final rulemaking in March 2017, ultimately collecting data on 11 different categories of rail service (listed below). The STB also collects Chicago-specific metrics that are not included in this dataset. The original STB source data can be found here: https://prod.stb.gov/reports-data/rail-service-data/.

This dataset is a compilation of all 11 categories in a single table. The single-table approach offers a convenient way to access all of the data at once, and it enables the use of the "global filter" feature in the Agricultural Rail Service Metrics dashboard found here: https://internal.agtransport.usda.gov/stories/s/jxpf-zf6y.

For those that wish to work with each category separately (or to view the metadata for each category), the 11 individual tables can be accessed at the following URLs:

Carloadings: https://agtransport.usda.gov/d/tb7q-kn5i.
Train Speeds: https://agtransport.usda.gov/d/2wy9-nmz4.
Origin Dwell Times: https://agtransport.usda.gov/d/34cn-rk65.
Terminal Dwell Times: https://agtransport.usda.gov/d/9z94-b4fw.
Cars On Line: https://agtransport.usda.gov/d/grdc-x6yk.
Manifest Grain Car Order Fulfillment: https://agtransport.usda.gov/d/57pa-stwn.
Railcars Not Moved: https://agtransport.usda.gov/d/fta3-xryx.
Trains Held Short: https://agtransport.usda.gov/d/iacs-9uck.
Grain Cars Loaded and Billed: https://agtransport.usda.gov/d/27k8-utc2.
Grain Shuttle Train Turns: https://agtransport.usda.gov/d/nwye-ushu.
Coal Unit Train Loadings: https://agtransport.usda.gov/d/5pbv-pd4d.

This chart shows historical grain train speeds, averaged by month, to provide a sense of long-term trends. Use the filters to select different date ranges, commodities, or railroads.