Four Class I freight railroads met the Surface Transportation Board's revenue-adequacy standard for 2025, according to a notice published in the October 13 Federal Register.
The board names BNSF Railway Company, CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern Combined Railroad Subsidiaries and Union Pacific Railroad Company. The determination concerns a financial benchmark for the prior year, rather than a new passenger fare or a current service-quality assessment.
The threshold
Under the standard described in the notice, a railroad is revenue adequate when its return on net investment equals or exceeds the industry's current cost of capital. For 2025, the board identifies that cost of capital as 9.79 percent.
The notice says the board applied that benchmark to each Class I carrier and found the four named railroads revenue adequate. The term describes this regulatory financial test. It should not be read as an assurance that every customer receives adequate service or that every charge is reasonable.
The notice does not print each carrier's rate of return. It therefore does not establish how far each named carrier exceeded the threshold, nor a ranking among them.
The dates are separate
The board decided the matter October 7 and served its decision October 8. The notice states that the decision was effective October 8, 2026.
October 13 is the Federal Register publication date. It does not move the effective date forward five days or turn the financial observation into a measurement of 2026 performance.
The cited cost-of-capital decision was served September 10. That is another underlying record, distinct from this adequacy determination.
Where to follow the calculation
The proceeding is docket EP 552, Sub-No. 30. The notice says the decision is posted on the board's website. A reader looking for individual returns or calculation details needs that underlying decision and the separate cost-of-capital record.
Those decisions were not independently read for this report; the findings reported here are limited to the published notice.