---
kind: "section"
citation: "49 U.S.C. § 28501"
title: "49"
title_heading: "Transportation"
number: "28501"
heading: "Definitions"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/49/28501"
units:
  - "Subtitle V — Rail Programs"
  - "Part E — Miscellaneous"
  - "Chapter 285 — Commuter Rail Mediation"
---

# §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](#7) 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](/usc/49/24102.md?p=3)” has the meaning given that term in [section 24102](/usc/49/24102.md);
- (4) the term “public transportation authority” means a local governmental authority (as defined in [section 5302](/usc/49/5302.md)) established to provide, or make a contract providing for, [commuter rail passenger transportation](/usc/49/24102.md?p=3);
- (5) the term “[rail carrier](/usc/49/24102.md?p=9)” means a person, other than a governmental authority, providing common carrier [railroad](/usc/49/22401.md?p=12) transportation for compensation subject to the jurisdiction of the [Board](#1) under [chapter 105](/usc/49/chstIV/ptA/ch105.md);
- (6) the term “segregated fixed guideway facility” means a fixed guideway facility constructed within the [railroad](/usc/49/22401.md?p=12) right-of-way of a [rail carrier](/usc/49/24102.md?p=9) but physically separate from [trackage](#7), including relocated [trackage](#7), within the right-of-way used by a [rail carrier](/usc/49/24102.md?p=9) for freight transportation purposes; and
- (7) the term “trackage” means a [railroad](/usc/49/22401.md?p=12) line of a [rail carrier](/usc/49/24102.md?p=9), including a spur, industrial, team, switching, side, yard, or station track, and a facility of a [rail carrier](/usc/49/24102.md?p=9).

## 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.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Amendments

2021—Par. (4). Pub. L. 117–58 substituted “section 5302” for “section 5302(a)(6)”.