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 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.)

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.

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.

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.

Weekly actual and planned coal loadings from the Surface Transportation Board's (STB) Rail Service Metrics. Railroads provide the average daily count (per week) of unit train coal traffic from major coal producing regions. They have the option of providing this metric on a train- or carload basis. For example, BNSF reports the average daily loadings for the week of coal unit trains. CSX, on the other hand, reports on a carload basis. Data are broken out by coal production region.

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 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).

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.