The Surface Transportation Board (STB) is soliciting suggestions for candidates to fill two vacancies on the Board’s Railroad-Shipper Transportation Advisory Council (RSTAC), one for a small shipper representative and one for a Class I railroad representative.
The RSTAC focuses on important issues to small shippers and small railroads, including railcar supply, rates, competition, and procedures for addressing claims. There are nine voting members of RSTAC who are senior executive officers of organizations engaged in the railroad and rail-shipping industries.
At least four of the voting members, determined by the STB Chairman, must be representatives of small shippers, and at least four voting members must be representatives of Class II or III railroads. Six appointed members, three of these representing Class I railroads and three representing large shipper organizations, serve in a nonvoting, advisory capacity. They are entitled to participate in RSTAC deliberations.
The ICC Termination Act of 1995 (ICCTA) directs the RSTAC to develop private-sector mechanisms to identify, address, and prevent obstacles to effective and efficient interstate transportation. The RSTAC also prepares an annual report concerning its activities and recommendations on regulatory or legislative relief it considers appropriate.
The RSTAC was established to advise railroad-transportation policy issues it considers significant to the STB’s Chairman, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation, the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, and the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
Nominations may be submitted either via the Board’s e-filing format or in traditional hardcopy format according to instructions.