---
type: "LegalText"
title: "49 U.S.C. § 28501"
description: "Definitions"
jurisdiction: "us"
corpus: "united_states_code"
kind: "code_section"
title_number: 49
title_name: "TRANSPORTATION"
chapter_number: "285"
chapter_name: "COMMUTER RAIL MEDIATION"
section: "28501"
citation: "49 U.S.C. § 28501"
status: "current"
release_point: "119-100"
release_date: "2026-06-26"
source: "official"
source_url: "https://uscode.house.gov/download/releasepoints/us/pl/119/100/xml_usc49@119-100.zip"
source_identifier: "/us/usc/t49/s28501"
source_file: "data/legal/raw/us/code/title-49/usc49.xml"
source_hash: "c4255afcb7eb947c76e61e00be6d7fa7a51e219d0cfa7c7ab2389720bf1f59c4"
raw_snapshot_hash: "0786acdd244d8f42c5a8e8ed1ec2a8dcb47dd0e02a286752710a20745702a4fb"
text_hash: "0ec117a8e75ab4508ed40a59ad813d8b0a75d4c31eeae2aad7148a042357343d"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-04"
confidence: "official"
tags: ["legal", "us-code"]
---

# 49 U.S.C. § 28501 - Definitions

## Text

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.

(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

Amendments2021—Par. (4). Pub. L. 117–58 substituted “section 5302” for “section 5302(a)(6)”.