Surface Transportation Board STB

When Congress abolished the Interstate Commerce Commission, the nation's first independent regulatory agency, in the ICC Termination Act of December 29, 1995, it transferred the remaining rail and other functions to a new Surface Transportation Board, which began on January 1, 1996. The Board was first placed within the Department of Transportation and was made fully independent by the Surface Transportation Board Reauthorization Act of 2015, which also expanded it from three members to five.

The STB has authority over freight railroad mergers, the construction and abandonment of rail lines, the conversion of unused lines to trails, and disputes over rail rates and service, particularly for shippers who depend on a single railroad. It also oversees certain pipelines that carry commodities other than oil and gas, some intercity bus matters, and household goods moving rates. Federal deregulation in the Staggers Rail Act of 1980 left most rail rates to the market, and the Board's role is to step in where competition is limited.

Consolidation has left a handful of large freight railroads, and the Board's merger decisions draw intense attention. It approved the combination of Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern on March 15, 2023, and in 2025 Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern announced a plan to merge into the first coast-to-coast freight railroad, which requires Board approval. In 2025 the President also removed a Democratic Board member. Supporters of a large merger argue it would speed freight and take trucks off highways, while shippers and labor groups warn it would reduce competition and service.