The railroad industry, including rail labor, likes to throw around a lot of letters. There’s an “alphabet soup” of acronyms that frequently appear in industry and union news sites and publications, including this one — for example, AAR, ARU, BLET, CSXT, DOT, FRA, and STB. Right now the STB, or Surface Transportation Board, is playing a particularly important role in the proposed Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger. For those unfamiliar with the agency, here is some background information about the STB.
Essentially, the STB is the independent federal agency charged with the economic regulation of various modes of surface transportation in the United States, particularly freight rail. The agency has jurisdiction over railroad rate, practice, and service issues and rail restructuring transactions, including mergers and acquisitions. In the UP-NS proposal, the STB is tasked with conducting a thorough review to analyze the competitive effects of the proposed merger. A key component of STB’s review process is a public-interest review to ensure that the proposed merger serves the public interest and maintains a competitive national rail network. The STB consists of five Board members, one of whom serves as the Chairman. The Board members are nominated by the President of the United States and confirmed by Congress.
The STB was created on January 1, 1996, and is the successor to the former Interstate Commerce Commission, or ICC. The ICC was established in 1887 as the first federal agency with the power to regulate industry, and was created to control unfair railroad monopolies. At the time of STB’s creation in 1996, there was discussion of what to call the new agency. While many suggested “Surf Board,” traditional railroad culture prevailed and the acronym “STB” was adopted.
Locomotive photos by Cory Rusch, BLET Division 659