49 USC § 28501 - Definitions

---
identifier: "/us/usc/t49/s28501"
source: "usc"
legal_status: "official_legal_evidence"
title: "49 USC § 28501 - Definitions"
title_number: 49
title_name: "TRANSPORTATION"
section_number: "28501"
section_name: "Definitions"
chapter_number: 285
chapter_name: "COMMUTER RAIL MEDIATION"
part_number: "E"
part_name: "MISCELLANEOUS"
positive_law: true
currency: "119-84"
last_updated: "2026-04-17"
format_version: "1.1.0"
generator: "[email protected]"
source_credit: "(Added Pub. L. 110–432, div. B, title IV, § 401(a), Oct. 16, 2008, 122 Stat. 4955; amended Pub. L. 117–58, div. C, § 30001(b)(4), Nov. 15, 2021, 135 Stat. 890.)"
---


# § 28501. Definitions

In this chapter—

**(1)** the term “Board” means the Surface Transportation Board;

**(2)** the term “capital work” means maintenance, restoration, reconstruction, capacity enhancement, or rehabilitation work on trackage that would be treated, in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, as a capital item rather than an expense;

**(3)** the term “commuter rail passenger transportation” has the meaning given that term in section 24102;

**(4)** the term “public transportation authority” means a local governmental authority (as defined in section 5302) established to provide, or make a contract providing for, commuter rail passenger transportation;

**(5)** the term “rail carrier” means a person, other than a governmental authority, providing common carrier railroad transportation for compensation subject to the jurisdiction of the Board under chapter 105;

**(6)** the term “segregated fixed guideway facility” means a fixed guideway facility constructed within the railroad right-of-way of a rail carrier but physically separate from trackage, including relocated trackage, within the right-of-way used by a rail carrier for freight transportation purposes; and

**(7)** the term “trackage” means a railroad line of a rail carrier, including a spur, industrial, team, switching, side, yard, or station track, and a facility of a rail carrier.

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**Source Credit**: (Added Pub. L. 110–432, div. B, title IV, § 401(a), Oct. 16, 2008, 122 Stat. 4955; amended Pub. L. 117–58, div. C, § 30001(b)(4), Nov. 15, 2021, 135 Stat. 890.)

## Editorial Notes

### Amendments

2021—Par. (4).  substituted “section 5302” for “section 5302(a)(6)”.