82 FR 49929 - National Transit Database Reporting Changes and Clarifications

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Transit Administration

Federal Register Volume 82, Issue 207 (October 27, 2017)

This notice provides information on proposed changes and clarifications to the National Transit Database (NTD) reporting requirements. All proposed changes and clarifications are proposed to be effective for report year 2017 (beginning in September 2017).

[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 207 (Friday, October 27, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 49929-49932]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2017-23380]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Transit Administration

[Docket No. FTA-2017-0010]


National Transit Database Reporting Changes and Clarifications

AGENCY: Federal Transit Administration, DOT.

ACTION: Request for Comments.

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SUMMARY: This notice provides information on proposed changes and 
clarifications to the National Transit Database (NTD) reporting 
requirements. All proposed changes and clarifications are proposed to 
be effective for report year 2017 (beginning in September 2017).

DATES: Comments are due by December 26, 2017. FTA will consider late 
comments to the extent practicable.

ADDRESSES: Please identify your submission by Docket Number (FTA-2017-
0010) through one of the following methods:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: Submit electronic comments and 
other data to http://www.regulations.gov.
     U.S. Mail: Send comments to Docket Operations; U.S. 
Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., West Building 
Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590-0001.
     Hand Delivery or Courier: Take comments to Docket 
Operations in

[[Page 49930]]

Room W12-140 of the West Building, Ground Floor, at 1200 New Jersey 
Avenue SE., Washington, DC, between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., Monday 
through Friday, except Federal holidays.
     Fax: Fax comments to Docket Operations, U.S. Department of 
Transportation, at (202) 493-2251.
    Instructions: You must include the agency name (Federal Transit 
Administration) and Docket Number (FTA-2017-0010) for this notice, at 
the beginning of your comments. If sent by mail, submit two copies of 
your comments. Due to security procedures in effect since October 2001, 
mail received through the U.S. Postal Service may be subject to delays. 
Parties submitting comments should consider using an express mail firm 
to ensure their prompt filing of any submissions not filed 
electronically or by hand. If you wish to receive confirmation that FTA 
received your comments, you must include a self-addressed stamped 
postcard. All comments received will be posted without change to http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal information provided. You 
may review U.S. DOT's complete Privacy Act Statement published in the 
Federal Register on April 11, 2000, at 65 FR 19477-8 or http://DocketsInfo.dot.gov.
    Electronic Access and Filing: This document and all comments 
received may be viewed online through the Federal eRulemaking portal at 
http://www.regulations.gov. Electronic submission and retrieval help 
and guidelines are available on the Web site. It is available 24 hours 
each day, 365 days a year. Please follow the instructions. An 
electronic copy of this document may also be downloaded from the Office 
of the Federal Register's home page at https://www.federalregister.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Maggie Schilling, National Transit 
Database Program Manager, FTA Office of Budget and Policy, (202) 366-
2054 or [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Table of Contents

A. Background and Overview
B. Clarifications on Reporting Requirements Related to the Transit 
Asset Management Program Rule Published in July 2016
    a. Establishes a Definition of Capital Responsibility
    b. Clarifies Reporting Deadlines for New Assets
    c. Adds Non-Revenue Service/Yard Track and Total Track Without 
Capital Replacement Responsibility Category
C. Additional Guidance on Reportable Safety Events
D. Clarification on Reporting Requirements for Job Access and 
Reverse Commute (JARC) Fund Recipients
E. Guidance on Distinguishing Between Commuter and Intercity Service
F. Change to Reporting Requirements for Non-Rail, For-Profit 
Providers of Public Transportation Reporting Directly to the NTD
G. Clarification of Major Mechanical System Failures and Other 
Mechanical System Failures Definitions

A. Background and Overview

    The National Transit Database (NTD) was established by Congress to 
be the Nation's primary source for information and statistics on the 
transit systems of the United States. Recipients and beneficiaries of 
grants from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) under the 
Urbanized Area Formula Grants Program (Sec.  5307) or Other than 
Urbanized Area (Rural) Formula Program (Sec.  5311) are required to 
submit data to the NTD. Additionally, all other recipients of grants 
from FTA that own, operate, or manage assets used in public 
transportation are required to report data related to their asset 
inventory, condition assessments, and state of good repair performance 
targets data to the NTD.
    In July 2012, the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act 
(MAP-21) amended Sec.  5335 authorizing the collection of an expanded 
asset inventory and condition information through the NTD. The updated 
asset inventory and condition reporting requirements were published in 
the Federal Register in July 2016.
    The final NTD asset inventory reporting guidance specifies that 
service vehicles and administrative or maintenance facilities are 
reportable if the agency has full or partial capital responsibility for 
the asset; however, the updated guidance did not define capital 
responsibility as it relates to the NTD reporting requirements. This 
notice corrects that oversight and clarifies the term capital 
responsibility. It also provides clarification on when a new asset is 
reportable to the NTD and proposes additional granularity to track 
reporting.
    In addition, FTA is seeking comment on five additional pieces of 
proposed guidance for inclusion in the NTD Reporting Manual. First is 
an update to the definition of a reportable event for monthly safety 
reporting. Second is a clarification on reporting requirements for 
recipients of JARC funds. Third is additional guidance on 
distinguishing between commuter and intercity service. Fourth is an 
adjustment to the reporting requirements for non-rail, for-profit 
providers of public transportation. Fifth is a proposed update to the 
definition of major mechanical system failures and other mechanical 
system failures and solicits comment on improvements to these data 
points. The solicitation for comment on improvements to the mechanical 
system failures data points are for information only purposes, but may 
be used to inform a future notice. These changes are discussed in 
greater detail in the sections following.
    All proposed changes and clarifications will be effective for 
report year 2017, that begins in September 2017.

B. Clarifications on Reporting Requirements Related to the Transit 
Asset Management Program Rule Published in July 2016

    (a) Beginning in report year 2018, all NTD reporters are required 
to report additional asset inventory information with their annual 
report. The guidance published with the final asset inventory reporting 
requirements specified that service vehicles and administrative or 
maintenance facilities are reportable if the agency has full or partial 
capital responsibility for the asset; however, the guidance did not 
specifically define capital responsibility.
    FTA is proposing that for purposes of the NTD Report, an agency has 
direct capital responsibility for an asset if any of the following are 
true:
    1. The agency owns the asset,
    2. the agency jointly owns the asset with another entity, or
    3. The agency is responsible for replacing, overhauling, 
refurbishing or conducting major repairs on an asset, or the cost of 
those activities are itemized as a capital line item in their budget.
    Performing minimal preventive maintenance work on an asset, like 
cleaning, does not in itself indicate direct capital responsibility for 
the asset. An infrastructure asset itemized as a capital line item in 
the budget does not necessarily mean an agency has direct capital 
responsibility; an agency must also have management or oversight 
responsibilities for the line item project.
    (b) The guidance published with the final asset inventory reporting 
requirements did not clearly state when an asset that is under 
construction or final assembly becomes reportable to the NTD. FTA is 
proposing that an agency is required to report a new asset to the NTD 
asset inventory in the fiscal year that the agency begins using the 
asset for public transportation service. Agencies would not be required 
to report assets that are being assembled, nor those assets under 
construction, nor assets that are in testing.

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    (c) The new track inventory form, which will be implemented in 
report year 2018, includes two track types: Tangent and curve. Agencies 
are asked to report a sum of all track in these two categories. The 
guidance does not indicate whether non-revenue or yard track should be 
included in these two categories. It also does not allow agencies to 
separate out the total track without capital replacement 
responsibility. To clarify the reporting requirement and ensure that 
the Transit Asset Management (TAM) Program infrastructure performance 
restrictions metric (% of track segments under performance restriction) 
only includes track used in revenue service for which an agency has 
capital replacement responsibility, FTA is proposing the addition of 
two additional track categories. Under this proposal, agencies would 
report: (1) Total in-service tangent track, (2) total in-service curved 
track and (3) total non-revenue/yard track (includes all non-revenue/
yard track regardless of capital replacement responsibility) and (4) 
total in-service track with no capital replacement responsibility. The 
TAM performance restriction calculation would exclude all track in the 
third and fourth categories. In addition to these four categories, 
agencies would also report total track under performance restriction. 
This number would be used with the total in-service track minus the 
total in-service track with no capital replacement responsibility to 
calculate the percent of track segments under performance restriction.

C. Additional Guidance on Reportable Safety Events

    FTA is proposing the following update to a reportable safety event. 
Although FTA is not changing the thresholds for a reportable event, FTA 
is clarifying the sorts of locations where a reportable event may 
occur. The primary change is the addition of safety reporting for 
events occurring on transit infrastructure. For example, a substation 
may not be part of the transit right-of-way, but FTA has always 
intended that a safety event occurring at a substation outside the 
right-of-way should be reportable. The current definition can be found 
in the 2016 NTD Safety Reporting Manual found on the NTD Web site: 
www.transit.dot.gov/ntd.
    The proposed definition of a reportable safety event is below:
    A safety or security event occurring:

--On transit right-of-way or infrastructure
--at a transit revenue facility
--at a maintenance facility or rail yard
--during a transit-related maintenance activity, or
--involving a transit revenue vehicle
    Excluded from this event reporting requirement are:
--Events that occur off transit property where affected persons, 
vehicles, or objects come to rest on transit property after the event
--occupational safety events occurring in administrative buildings
--deaths that are a result of illness or other natural causes, outside 
of a reportable event
--other events (assault, robbery, non-transit vehicle collisions etc.) 
occurring at bus stops or shelters that are not on transit-controlled 
property
--collisions that occur while travelling to or from a transit-related 
maintenance activity
--collisions involving a supervisor car, or other transit service 
vehicle operating on public roads

D. Clarifications on Reporting Requirements for JARC Recipients

    Prior to 2012, the JARC Program was a stand-alone grant program 
which did not carry an NTD reporting requirement. MAP-21, however, 
repealed the JARC Program as a stand-alone program, and instead made 
JARC projects eligible activities under the Urbanized Area Formula 
Program and the Rural Areas Formula Program. All recipients and 
beneficiaries of these programs are required to report to the NTD, 
however, FTA does not currently provide any guidance on reporting 
requirements for recipients and subrecipients of the programs that only 
support JARC projects, and which do not provide any public 
transportation services.
    FTA is proposing to exempt from NTD reporting any subrecipient that 
only receives FTA money for 5307 or 5311 funded JARC projects, and does 
not have any transit operating or capital expenses from any funding 
source.

E. Guidance on Distinguishing Between Commuter and Intercity Service

    The definition of public transportation at 49 U.S.C 5302 excludes 
intercity passenger rail operated by Amtrak and intercity bus service. 
In a Federal Register Notice published on Tuesday, August 19, 2014 
(FTA-2014-0006), FTA provided additional guidance on the definitions of 
commuter rail and commuter bus and established that service provided by 
these modes could be considered public transportation, and not 
intercity transportation, if at least 50% of passengers make a return 
trip on the same day across all service runs for one year.
    FTA reviews all requests to report new service to the NTD, as 
services excluded from the definition of public transportation are not 
permitted to report to the NTD on a voluntary basis. When FTA deems it 
necessary, it will require the agency to conduct a passenger survey 
test of whether 50% of passengers are making a return trip on the same 
day. However, FTA proposes that such a survey must meet the following 
requirements:
    1. The agency must conduct the survey over a 12-month period, to 
account for seasonal variations in passenger behavior.
    2. The agency must include the entire length of each route in the 
survey.
    3. The survey must determine that at least 50% of passengers on 
each route make a return trip on the same day, with 95% confidence.
    4. A qualified statistician must approve the survey/sampling 
methodology and certify that the results give the required level of 
confidence.
    If at least 50% of all passengers surveyed on a route made a return 
trip on the same day, or reported their intention to do so, then FTA 
will permit the agency to report that route to the NTD.
    Current NTD reporting guidance does not address the questions of 
commuter vs intercity service for ferryboats. Although all ferryboats 
that permit walk-on passengers are included in the definition of public 
transportation, the NTD Reporting Manual only allows ferryboat service 
outside the boundaries of an urbanized area to be deemed 
``attributable'' to that urbanized area for commuter ferryboat 
services. Intercity ferryboat services are not permitted to deem their 
service outside the boundaries of an urbanized area as attributable to 
that area. Thus, FTA is proposing a uniform use of the 50% same day 
return trip policy to determine whether Ferryboat (FB) service is 
commuter or intercity for the purposes of inclusion in NTD. In 
addition, FTA is proposing a requirement for all new commuter rail, 
commuter bus or ferryboat service to survey for routes with a maximum 
one-way trip time exceeding 90 minutes to establish that at least 50% 
of all passengers on the route made a return trip on the same day. For 
new commuter rail, commuter bus, or ferryboat routes being proposed for 
reporting to the NTD, FTA may, at its discretion, presume that those 
with 100% one-way trip times of 90 minutes or less are commuter 
services, without requiring a passenger survey.

[[Page 49932]]

F. Change to Reporting Requirements for Non-Rail For-Profit Providers 
of Public Transportation

    FTA currently has 18 non-rail, for-profit providers of public 
transportation that report directly to the NTD. One of these reporters 
raised the concern that providing the detailed financial information 
required of full reporters to the NTD may compromise their ability to 
successfully compete for business. They requested that FTA consider 
reducing the financial reporting requirements for for-profit providers 
to mirror those of reduced reporters to address their concern. FTA is 
seeking comment on the proposal to allow non-rail, for-profit providers 
of public transportation the option to report to the NTD as a reduced 
reporter. Of the 18 non-rail, for-profit providers referenced above, 
ten already meet the current reduced reporting threshold. This proposal 
would provide the flexibility to report as a reduced reporter for the 
remaining 8 agencies.
    As a reduced reporter, these agencies would no longer be required 
to report passenger miles traveled (PMT). Such data previously reported 
by these agencies would not be available for use in the Urbanized Area 
Formula (UAF) apportionment. If the local urbanized area has more than 
200,000 in population, this may reduce their local urbanized area's UAF 
apportionment. If the local urbanized area has fewer than 200,000 in 
population, this may impact the local urbanized area's eligibility for 
Small Transit Intensive Cities (STIC) funds in the UAF apportionment.
    FTA would amend current reporting forms to allow ferry providers to 
continue to report fixed guideway directional route miles (DRM) or 
fixed guideway vehicle revenue miles (VRM) for continued use in the 
State of Good Repair Formula Apportionment.

G. Clarification of Mechanical System Failures Definitions

    FTA has received feedback from the transit industry that the 
current definitions of major mechanical system failures and other 
mechanical system failures do not provide sufficient detail or clarity 
to allow for a useful analysis of the data. This information is 
currently collected from each agency by mode. The current definitions 
can be found in the 2017 NTD Policy Manual or the glossary on the NTD 
Web site: www.transit.dot.gov/ntd. Major mechanical system failures and 
other mechanical system failures are only reported by full reporters to 
the NTD; reduced reporters and capital asset-only reporters do not 
currently report these data.
    To improve current reporting guidance, FTA proposes adding language 
specifically excluding failures caused by collision, natural disaster, 
or vandalism to the current definitions. FTA seeks comment on this 
proposed change. The amended definitions are below:
    Proposed definition of major mechanical system failure:
    A failure of some mechanical element of the revenue vehicle that is 
not caused by a collision, natural disaster, or vandalism and prevents 
the vehicle from completing a scheduled revenue trip or from starting 
the next scheduled revenue trip because actual movement is limited or 
the vehicle is unsafe.
    Proposed definition of other mechanical system failure:
    A failure of some other mechanical element of the revenue vehicle 
that is not caused by a collision, natural disaster, or vandalism, but, 
because of local agency policy, prevents the revenue vehicle from 
completing a scheduled revenue trip or from starting the next scheduled 
revenue trip even though the vehicle is physically able to continue in 
revenue service.
    In addition to the proposed definition changes, FTA seeks 
additional feedback on the current utility of the major mechanical 
system failures and other mechanical system failures data points. As an 
example, one of the primary concerns expressed to FTA by stakeholders 
is that the current definition of other mechanical system failures 
cannot be used for comparative purposes because it is heavily dependent 
on local policy decisions. FTA would like to improve the utility of 
these data points to: (1) Inform transit stakeholders on mechanical 
performance; (2) allow for better comparative analysis of the data; 
and, (3) provide better insight on transit state of good repair. At 
this time, FTA is not formally proposing changes to these data points 
beyond the definition adjustments addressed above; however, two 
scenarios are outlined below. FTA welcomes input from stakeholders on 
these scenarios and welcomes additional direction on how these data 
points may be adjusted to best accomplish the stated goals.
    Input received from this notice may be used to inform a future 
proposal to adjust the definition or collection method of these data 
points.
    The scenarios described below are for public comment only. At this 
time, FTA is not formally proposing these changes.
    FTA seeks feedback on the following scenarios:
    (1) Collection of the major mechanical system failures by fleet 
rather than by mode. This would improve the granularity of the major 
mechanical systems failure data by collecting the information at the 
vehicle fleet level. It would provide a more robust and granular data 
set for major mechanical system failures and allow stakeholders to look 
at mechanical failure data by vehicle type. However, improving the 
granularity of the data could also increase the reporting burden for 
some agencies. To help offset this increase, FTA asks stakeholders to 
consider discontinuing the collection of other mechanical system 
failures.
    (2) Adjust the definition of other mechanical system failure to the 
following: All non-major failures of a mechanical element of the 
revenue vehicle requiring a work order that are not caused by a 
collision, natural disaster, or vandalism.
    This adjustment would provide a more standard and comprehensive 
look at the other mechanical system failures data. The new definition 
would allow for better comparison across transit agencies by focusing 
the outcome of this data point on a system failure rather than a local 
policy decision to remove the vehicle from service.
    In addition to the scenarios discussed above, FTA welcomes 
additional comment and input on how these data points may be adjusted 
to benefit the transit industry and transit stakeholders. FTA 
specifically requests that agencies provide comment on the anticipated 
impact on reporting burden for the scenarios above as well as the 
anticipated reporting burden for any additional suggestions provided to 
improve the utility of these data points.

K. Jane Williams,
Acting Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2017-23380 Filed 10-26-17; 8:45 am]
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