[Federal Register: November 9, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 217)]
[Notices]
[Page 63646-63648]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr09no07-108]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Transit Administration
[Docket No: FTA-2007-28960]
National Transit Database: Amendments to Urbanized Area Annual
Reporting Manual
AGENCY: Federal Transit Administration (FTA), DOT.
ACTION: Notice of Final Amendments to the 2007 National Transit
Database Urbanized Area Annual Reporting Manual.
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SUMMARY: This notice provides final notice of changes to the Federal
Transit Administration's (FTA) 2007 National Transit Database (NTD)
Urbanized Area Annual Reporting Manual (Annual Manual). Pursuant to 49
U.S.C. 5335, FTA requires recipients of FTA Urbanized Area Formula
Grants to provide an annual report to the Secretary of Transportation
via the NTD reporting system according to a uniform system of accounts
(USOA). In an ongoing effort to improve the NTD reporting system and be
responsive to the needs of NTD data users and of the transit agencies
reporting to the NTD, FTA annually refines and clarifies the reporting
requirements through revisions to the Annual Manual. On September 5,
2007, FTA published a notice in the Federal Register (72 FR 17564)
inviting comments on proposed amendments to the 2007 Annual Manual.
This notice provides responses to those comments and announces the
availability of the final 2007 Annual Manual.
DATES: Effective Date: November 9, 2007.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For program issues, John D. Giorgis,
Office of Budget and Policy, (202) 366-5430 (telephone); (202) 366-7989
(fax); or john.giorgis@dot.gov (e-mail). For legal issues, Richard
Wong, Office of the Chief Counsel, (202) 366-0675 (telephone); (202)
366-3809 (fax); or richard.wong@dot.gov (e-mail).
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
The National Transit Database (NTD) is the Federal Transit
Administration's (FTA's) primary database for statistics on the transit
industry. Recipients of FTA's Urbanized Area Formula Program (Section
5307) and Other Than Urbanized Area Formula Program (Section 5311) are
required by statute to submit data to the NTD. These data are used to
``help meet the needs of * * * the public for information on which to
base public transportation service planning * * *'' (49 U.S.C 5335).
Currently, over 650 transit agencies in urbanized areas report to
the NTD through an Internet-based reporting system. Each year,
performance data from these submissions are used to apportion over $4
billion of FTA funds under the Urbanized Area Formula Grants Program.
These data are also used in the annual National Transit Summaries and
Trends report, the biennial Conditions and Performance Report to
Congress, and in meeting FTA's obligations under the Government
Performance Results Act of 1993.
In an ongoing effort to improve the NTD Internet reporting system
and to be responsive to both the needs of NTD data users and the needs
of transit agencies reporting to the NTD, FTA annually refines and
clarifies reporting requirements to the NTD, as contained in the Annual
NTD Module Reporting Manual. This notice announces the availability of
the final 2007 Annual Manual.
II. Comments and FTA Response to Comments
On September 5, 2007, FTA published a notice in the Federal
Register (72 FR 17564) inviting comments on proposed amendments to the
2007 Annual Manual. In this announcement, FTA proposed seven changes:
(1) To require buyers of purchased transportation service from
private providers to include the service in their own NTD report, and
to no longer permit private providers of purchased transportation
service to report separately to the NTD on behalf of the public
provider of transit services;
(2) To require that when one public transit provider purchases
transportation services from another public transit agency, that either
the buyer or the seller may report the service, but that the service
must be reported as being ``directly operated;''
(3) To require rail transit agencies to report Average Weekday
Unlinked Passenger Trips and Actual Passenger Car Revenue Miles by four
time categories: Weekday AM Peak, Weekday Midday, Weekday PM Peak and
Weekday Other;
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(4) To require those few transit agencies that service one
urbanized area over 200,000 in population (large urbanized area) and
two or more urbanized areas under 200,000 in population (small
urbanized areas) to separately allocate their operations, operational
expense, and fixed guideway data among each of the urbanized areas
under 200,000 in population that they serve on the federal funding
allocation form;
(5) To require transit agencies to separate funds, which were
previously reported as ``Other FTA Funds,'' into different categories
for each FTA program in their NTD report;
(6) To create a standard form for submitting the Chief Executive
Officer's (CEO) certification; and
(7) To require all transit agencies, beginning with the 2008 report
year, to conduct a statistical sample of average trip lengths (used for
calculating passenger miles traveled) every three years, unless they
are a large transit agency that is already required to sample every
year.
FTA received eight comments on the proposed amendments to the 2007
Annual Manual. Four comments were received regarding the proposed peak
rail data collection, two comments were received on the proposed
sampling requirements for small urbanized area transit agencies, and
one comment each was received on the proposed changes to the allocation
of funding form, the collection of funding data by specific FTA
programs, and the standard form for filing CEO certifications. No
comments were received on either of the two proposed changes regarding
the reporting of purchased transportation services. Additionally, FTA
received comments on two issues that were not addressed in the Federal
Register Notice. Specifically, these comments concerned the 2007
reporting deadlines, and the circular providing guidance for the
sampling of unlinked passenger trip and passenger mile traveled data in
vanpool operations. FTA hereby responds to these comments in the
following order: (a) Rail Peak Service Data; (b) Sampling Requirements
for Small Urbanized Area Transit Agencies; (c) Allocation of Funding;
(d) Collection of Funding Data by Specific FTA Programs; (e) the CEO
Certification Standard Form; (f) the 2007 Reporting Deadlines; and (g)
Vanpool Sampling Requirements.
(a) Rail Peak Service Data
FTA received four comments on its proposal to collect peak service
data for rail transit systems. Two comments asked that this requirement
be made optional for the 2007 and 2008 report years, as 2007 and 2008
data have already been collected without regard to peak data. One of
these comments also suggested that FTA institute a size threshold to
require peak data only from large rail transit agencies, and asked if
the peak service data requirement would apply to atypical rail modes,
such as inclined plane. One comment expressed concern about the burden
this requirement would impose on small transit agencies that operate
only motorbus and demand response service.
FTA Responds: FTA adopts the commenters' suggestion to make this
reporting requirement voluntary for the 2007 and 2008 report years.
Therefore, FTA will grant a reporting waiver for the peak rail service
data requirement to any transit agency that requests one for the 2007
or 2008 report years. FTA also agrees not to apply the peak rail
service data requirement to atypical rail systems. The peak rail
service data collection will only apply to heavy rail, light rail, or
commuter rail systems. FTA will consider implementing a size threshold,
likely to be a threshold to exempt rail systems with 9 or fewer
vehicles, for the 2008 Report Year. FTA will invite further comments on
such a size threshold as part of a future announcement in the Federal
Register regarding proposed amendments to the 2008 Annual Reporting
Manual for urbanized area transit agencies. For the 2007 and 2008
Report Years, any small rail systems will be able to get an automatic
reporting waiver from the peak rail service requirements. FTA reminds
the commenters that this proposal concerns only rail systems, and that
this proposal does not apply to small transit agencies operating only
motorbus and demand response services.
One comment was received from a commuter rail transit agency that
indicated that it collected tickets by hand on-board the trains, and so
could not easily collect and report unlinked passenger trip data by
time of day. Two comments suggested that some transit agencies could
comply with FTA's proposal only by applying estimation factors to their
actual total ridership counts. One comment asked if FTA would define a
consistent peak service period across all rail agencies, or if each
rail agency could define its own peak period.
FTA Responds: FTA has updated the final 2007 Annual Manual to
reflect the following guidance: Each rail transit agency may define its
own peak period, based upon those times of a day at which it operates
trains on shorter headways, relative to the rest of the day. Further, a
rail transit agency may define an entire run of a train as being either
``peak'' or ``off-peak.'' As such, it would not be necessary for a rail
transit agency to determine which persons boarded an individual train.
Instead, peak service data could be provided based on the entire data
for a given run of a train. Only if a rail transit agency is unable to
collect even this data, a reasonable allocation factor may be used.
(b) Sampling Requirements for Small Urban Transit Agencies
FTA received two comments on its proposal to require all transit
agencies that are not required to sample every year to do so every
third year. Previously, some transit agencies in small urbanized areas
were only required to sample every fifth year. One small transit agency
and one State public transportation association urged FTA to reconsider
this proposal, arguing that the proposal would be too burdensome on
small transit agencies.
FTA Responds: FTA declines to adopt the commenters' suggestion to
reinstitute a five year passenger mile sampling cycle for transit
agencies in small urbanized areas. The previous requirements, with
separate five year and three year sampling cycles for certain
reporters, caused a great deal of confusion to reporters, and some
transit agencies ended up sampling in the wrong year. Simplified
requirements will ultimately benefit all transit agencies. Furthermore,
the five-year sampling cycle was previously instituted at a time when
transit performance data were not used for the apportionment of
Urbanized Area Formula Grants (Section 5307 Grants) to small urbanized
areas. With the passage of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient
Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) in 2005,
however, transit performance data are now used in the apportionment of
Section 5307 funds through the Small Transit-Intensive Cities (STIC)
Grant Program. As such, there is a greater need for high-quality
passenger mile data in small urbanized areas, as passenger mile data
for a transit agency in a small urbanized area impacts the Federal
funding for transit not just in its own urbanized area, but in all
other small urbanized areas, through the STIC apportionment formula. In
order to reduce reporting burden, FTA currently only requires transit
agencies to sample passenger miles so as to achieve 95% confidence with
10% precision. With a five-year sampling cycle, however, routine
sampling errors can negatively impact STIC apportionments for five
years until a new sample is conducted.
[[Page 63648]]
A three-year sampling cycle will provide additional data to improve the
overall quality of the passenger mile data used in the apportionment of
Federal funds. FTA recognizes that sampling for passenger miles may be
burdensome on transit agencies, particularly small ones. As such, FTA
is undertaking an effort to revise its sampling guidelines, so as to
reduce some of the reporting burden. FTA notes that the new sampling
requirements will not impact transit agencies until the 2011 report
year, as transit agencies on both the five-year and the three-year
cycle were already required to sample for the 2008 report year under
the old cycles.
(c) Rail Peak Service Data
One comment requested further direction on FTA's proposal to expand
its Federal Funding Allocation form to require transit agencies
servicing one large urbanized area and two or more small urbanized
areas to allocate their service data across the various small urbanized
areas. (For NTD purposes, a large urbanized area is one with 200,000 or
more in population, and a small urbanized area is one with less than
200,000 in population.) Previously, FTA's Federal Funding Allocation
form only accounted for transit agencies serving one small urbanized
area, not two or more. This comment expressed concern about the burden
of conducting this allocation for the commenter's own agency.
FTA Responds: FTA notes that the above comment came from a transit
agency that serves two large urbanized areas, and only one small
urbanized area. As such, the revised guidance does not apply to this
transit agency. FTA notes that transit agencies should allocate data
across various small urbanized areas in the same way in which many
transit agencies already allocate data across various large urbanized
areas. Additionally, FTA will provide guidance on this allocation
through the 2007 Annual Manual, through NTD training sessions, and
through technical assistance available from NTD validation analysts.
(d) Collection of Funding Data by Specific FTA Programs
FTA received one comment in support of its proposal to collect
funding data separately for each FTA Program, rather than through a
catchall category for ``Other FTA Funds.''
FTA Responds: FTA thanks the commenter.
(e) CEO Certification Standard Form
FTA received one comment on its proposal to create a standard CEO
Certification Form. This commenter was concerned that the standard CEO
Certification Form would not be able to accommodate its practice of
filing its NTD report before receiving the final report from its
auditor.
FTA Responds: FTA notes that its proposed CEO Certification Form
includes options 3a and 3b, each of which provides for a transit agency
to file its NTD report before receiving the final report from its
auditor.
(f) 2007 Reporting Deadlines
FTA received one comment that the ordinary reporting deadlines for
transit agencies with 2007 fiscal years ending on or before June 30,
2007, would not be attainable, given that the 2007 Annual Reporting
Manual was pending public notice-and-comment.
FTA Responds: FTA agrees with this comment, and establishes the
following 2007 NTD Reporting Deadlines for transit agencies with 2007
fiscal years ending on or before June 30, 2007:
Report Due Date: November 30, 2007.
Waiver Request Deadline: November 30, 2007.
Last Date to Receive Report Revisions: May 1, 2008.
Report Closeout: May 15, 2008.
FTA does not change the deadlines for transit agencies with 2007
fiscal years ending after June 30, 2007. FTA further reminds transit
agencies that pursuant to 49 CFR 630.6 NTD reporters may request a 30-
day extension for submitting their reports.
(g) 2007 Reporting Deadlines
FTA received one comment proposing revised guidance for sampling
passenger miles for vanpool service, which are currently covered by the
Circular UMTA C 2710.21, issued in 1988.
FTA Responds: The original Federal Register Notice announcing
proposed amendments to the 2007 Annual Manual did not mention vanpool
sampling guidelines or Circular UMTA C 2710.21. As noted above, FTA is
currently considering revising its sampling guidance, and will take
this comment under advisement in developing any such guidance. FTA will
invite public guidance on revised guidance, once it has been developed.
The final 2007 Reporting Manual, as amended, may be found on the
Internet at http://www.ntdprogram.gov.
Issued in Washington, DC, this 6th day of November 2007.
James S. Simpson,
Administrator.
[FR Doc. E7-22063 Filed 11-8-07; 8:45 am]
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