[Federal Register: February 7, 2008 (Volume 73, Number 26)]
[Notices]
[Page 7361-7364]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr07fe08-115]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Transit Administration
[Docket No: FTA-2008-0002]
National Transit Database: Amendments to Urbanized Area Annual
Reporting Manual
AGENCY: Federal Transit Administration (FTA), DOT.
ACTION: Notice of Availability of Proposed Amendments to the 2007
National Transit Database Urbanized Area Annual Reporting Manual.
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SUMMARY: This notice provides interested parties with the opportunity
to comment on changes to the Federal Transit Administration's (FTA)
2008 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). Other transit
agencies in urbanized areas report to the NTD under these requirements
on a voluntary basis, for purposes of including data from their transit
agencies in the apportionment of Urbanized Area Formula Grants. In an
ongoing effort to improve the NTD reporting system and be responsive to
the needs of the transit agencies reporting to the NTD, FTA annually
refines and clarifies the reporting requirements through revisions to
the Annual Manual.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before March 10, 2008. FTA will
consider late filed comments to the extent practicable.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments [identified by DOT Docket ID Number
FTA-2008-0002] at the Federal eRulemaking Portal at: http://www.regulations.gov.
Follow the online instructions for submitting
comments.
Fax: 202-493-2251.
Mail: Docket Management Facility: U.S. Department of
Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE., West Building Ground
Floor, Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590-0001.
Hand Delivery or Courier: West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140,
1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET, Monday
through Friday, except Federal holidays.
Instructions: When submitting comments you must use docket number
FTA-2008-0002. This will ensure that your comment is placed in the
correct docket. If you submit comments by
[[Page 7362]]
mail, you should submit two copies and include the above docket number.
Note that all comments received will be posted, without change, to
http://www.regulations.gov including any personal identifying
information.
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). Other
transit agencies in urbanized areas report to the NTD under these
requirements on a voluntary basis, for purposes of including data from
their transit agencies in the apportionment of Urbanized Area Formula
Grants. FTA details the NTD reporting requirements for urbanized area
transit agencies in the NTD Urbanized Area Annual Reporting Manual
(Annual Manual).
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 and Results Act.
In an ongoing effort to improve the NTD Internet reporting system
and to be responsive to the needs of the transit agencies reporting to
the NTD and the transit community, FTA annually refines and clarifies
reporting requirements to the NTD. This notice provides interested
parties with the opportunity to comment on changes to FTA's 2008 Annual
Manual. For purposes of comparison, the 2007 Annual Manual can be
reviewed on the NTD Web site, http://www.ntdprogram.gov.
II. Proposed Changes in the 2008 Annual Manual
Contractual Relationship (B-30) Form
FTA proposes to greatly simplify this form so as to reduce the
substantial confusion that this form has caused among reporters in the
past. Under FTA's proposal, this form will allow reporters to report
three types of relationships: (1) Traditional purchased transportation
contracts; (2) taxicab contracts for demand response service; and (3)
pass-through relationships. This change responds to the numerous
difficulties that reporters have had in the past in reporting their
taxicab contracts and pass-through relationships on a form that had
been designed for traditional purchased transportation contracts.
For traditional purchased transportation contracts and taxicab
contracts the simplified form will make it clear to transit agencies
that they are to report: (1) The vehicles and maintenance facilities
that may be provided to, or nominally leased to, the seller; (2) the
number of months the contract was operated in the past year; (3) the
number of vehicles or rail passenger cars operated during maximum
service by the seller of service; (4) the fare revenues accrued under
the service; (5) whether the fare revenues are retained by the seller,
or returned to the purchasing transit agency; (6) the contract
administration expenses incurred by the purchasing transit agency; and
(7) all other costs incurred by the purchasing agency to support the
contract, such as fuel, maintenance, insurance, and marketing costs.
The new option for taxicab contracts will relieve agencies of the
requirement to provide detailed asset data on the A-30 form for these
services. This will effectively make taxicab a third Type of Service
under the NTD.
The new option for pass-through relationships will greatly simplify
the reporting of these relationships for transit agencies. A transit
agency reporting a pass-through relationship will need to report: (1)
The nature of the pass-through (e.g. grant monies or vehicles); (2)
contact information for the recipient of the pass-through; and (3)
whether the reporting transit agency is including service provided the
recipient of the pass-through on the reporting transit agency's NTD
report, or if the reporting transit agency is expecting the recipient
of the pass-through to provide its own NTD report. In many cases, a
transit agency that is a direct recipient of an Urbanized Area Formula
Grant passes through the monies provided by the grant or vehicles
funded by the grant to some other transit agency. In the past, this has
created a great deal of confusion, and this proposal should provide
significant clarity to the reporting requirements.
Funds Expended and Earned (F-10) Form
FTA currently requires transit agencies to identify funds earned
from various types of dedicated taxes (specifically, income, sales,
property, gasoline, and other taxes; as well as regular tolls, high-
occupancy tolls, and other dedicated revenues) from various types of
sources (each of the above generated from independent political
entities, local governments, and state governments, respectively) and
to specify how much of each of these were expended on operations and
how much of each of these were expended on capital. FTA proposes to
eliminate this requirement at the level of individual types of taxes,
and to only report the total revenue earned from each type of dedicated
tax from each type of source. FTA proposes to only require transit
agencies to separate funds earned and spent on operations from funds
earned and spent on capital in the context of fare revenues, total
directly-generated revenues (e.g. parking and advertising revenues),
contributed services (e.g. services provided directly by another
government body), the various sources of Federal funds, total state
government revenues, total local government revenues, and total
revenues from independent political entities.
Additionally, FTA proposes to simplify this form by only making the
option to report revenue from independent political entities available
to those transit agencies that qualify as such entities, by virtue of
having their own tax-raising authority.
Bonds and Loans
FTA proposes to eliminate the requirement to report Bond and Loan
payments separately for each category of funding. Instead, FTA proposes
simplified bond and loan reporting that would require transit agencies
to report: (1) Year-beginning principal outstanding; (2) new bonds and
loans (new principal); (3) total interest paid; (4) total principal
repaid; and (5) total year-end principal outstanding.
Uses of Capital (F-20) Form
FTA proposes to reduce the reporting requirements by no longer
requiring transit agencies to separately report
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capital spending on Fare Revenue Collection Equipment and Communication
and Information Systems. FTA proposes to replace these two categories
with a single category for reporting capital expenditures on
Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS.)
Operating Expenses (F-30) Form
FTA proposes to reduce the reporting requirements by combining
separate reporting for Fuels and Lubricants and for Tires and Lubes
into reporting for a single category of Fuels and Lubes. Additionally,
FTA proposes to combine separate reporting for Taxes and for
Miscellaneous Expenses into a single category for Miscellaneous
Expenses. FTA proposes these changes to reduce the reporting burden of
the NTD.
Additionally, FTA proposes to simplify this form by limiting the
operating functions for which a number of object classes can be
reported. Specifically, FTA proposes to make the following changes for
reporting of directly operated services: (1) Eliminate reporting of the
Fuels and Lubes object classes under the Non-Vehicle Maintenance and
General Administration operating functions; (2) eliminate reporting of
the Utilities object class under the Non-Vehicle Maintenance operating
function; (3) only permit the Casualty and Liability and Miscellaneous
Expenses object classes to be reported under the General Administration
operating function.
Operating Expenses Summary (F-40) Form
FTA proposes to eliminate collecting Funds Not Applied,
Depreciation, and Amortization of Intangibles. The NTD does not collect
intangible assets, so these data are not necessary.
FTA proposes to stop collecting Interest Expenses, as this
information will now be collected with other information relating to
bonds and loans, as described in this Notice.
FTA proposes to stop collecting information on lease agreements on
this form. Leases should already be collected as part of the cost of
purchased transportation.
FTA proposes to continue collecting information on reconciling
items on this form, but will require an explanation of all reconciling
items.
Operator's Wages (F-50) Form
FTA proposes to discontinue this form. FTA already collects data on
employees, and employee hours on the R-10 Form, and FTA already
collects data on employees' pay and benefits on the F-10 Form.
Discontinuing this form will mean that FTA will no longer collect the
hours and expenditures on employees based on Platform Time, Straight
Time Allowance, Premium Time, and Non-Operating Work Time. FTA is
proposing this change to reduce the reporting burden of the NTD.
Service (S-10) Form
For Motorbus and Trolleybus services, FTA proposes to change the
categories currently labeled Total Actual Hours and Total Actual Miles.
These categories have caused a great deal of confusion in the past, as
despite their names, transit agencies were to report on these lines
only Revenue Hours and Miles plus Deadhead Hours and Miles; all other
hours and miles were to be excluded. FTA proposes to make reporting
much more intuitive by replacing these categories with Deadhead Hours
and Deadhead Miles. Transit agencies will be required to report actual
deadhead hours and miles in these categories. Additionally, FTA
proposes to eliminate the reporting of Charter Service Hours and of
School Bus Hours. Transit agencies should not be conducting school bus
service, transit agencies that do so are not eligible to report to the
NTD. Charter service among transit agencies is intended to be very
small, and is to be reported to FTA's Charter Registration Web site, in
accordance with 49 CFR Part 604. Instead, FTA will simplify reporting
by adding new categories for Other Hours and Other Miles. Transit
agencies should report miles and hours for maintenance, training,
charter service, and any other non-revenue and non-deadhead service on
these lines. For reference, FTA proposes to add an automatically-
calculated line to the form that will show transit agencies the total
hours and miles being reported.
For rail service, FTA proposes to make similar changes: (1)
Changing Total Train Hours and Total Train Miles to Deadhead Train
Hours and Deadhead Train Miles; (2) changing Total Passenger Car Hours
and Total Passenger Car Miles to Deadhead Passenger Car Hours and
Deadhead Passenger Car Miles; (3) adding lines for Other Train Hours
and Other Train Miles; (4) adding lines for Other Passenger Car Hours
and Other Passenger Car Miles; and (5) adding automatically-calculated
reference lines for Total Train Hours, Total Train Miles, Total
Passenger Car Hours, and Total Passenger Car Miles.
For demand response service, FTA proposes similar changes for
directly operated and purchased transportation services: (1) Changing
Total Actual Vehicle Hours and Total Actual Vehicle Miles to Deadhead
Hours and Deadhead Miles; (2) eliminating Charter Service Hours and
School Bus Hours; (3) adding Other Vehicle Hours and Other Vehicle
Miles; and (4) adding automatically-calculated reference lines for
Total Vehicle Hours and Total Vehicle Miles. Additionally, FTA proposes
to institute simplified reporting for demand response services provided
through taxicabs. This simplified report would not require the
reporting of Deadhead Hours, Deadhead Miles, Other Hours, and Other
Miles.
For vanpool service, FTA proposes similar changes: (1) Eliminating
Charter Service Hours and School Bus Hours; (2) adding Other Vehicle
Hours and Other Vehicle Miles; and (3) adding automatically-calculated
reference lines for Total Vehicle Hours and Total Vehicle Miles. FTA
also proposes to eliminate collecting information on deadhead for
vanpool services, as vanpools do not have deadhead, except in rare
circumstances where the vanpool has an employee driver. In these rare
cases, deadhead miles and hours would be reported under Other Hours and
Other Miles. FTA also proposes to stop collecting Time Service Begins
and Time Service Ends for vanpool services.
For jitney and p[uacute]blico services, FTA proposes similar
changes: (1) Eliminating Charter Service Hours and School Bus Hours;
(2) adding Other Vehicle Hours and Other Vehicle Miles; and (3) adding
automatically-calculated reference lines for Total Vehicle Hours and
Total Vehicle Miles. FTA also proposes to stop collecting information
on deadhead for jitney and p[uacute]blico, as the nature of these
services being run by owner-operated vehicles makes collecting deadhead
information overly burdensome. FTA proposes to reduce reporting burden
for these services by simply collecting hours and miles as being either
Revenue Hours and Miles or as Other Hours and Miles.
FTA proposes similar changes for ferryboat and aerial tramway
services: (1) Changing Total Actual Vehicle Hours and Total Actual
Vehicle Miles to Deadhead Hours and Deadhead Miles; (2) eliminating
Charter Service Hours; (3) adding Other Vehicle Hours and Other Vehicle
Miles; and (4) adding automatically-calculated reference lines for
Total Vehicle Hours and Total Vehicle Miles. Additionally, FTA proposes
to drop to reporting of peak data on service times and vehicles in
operation for these services.
For heavy rail, light rail, and commuter rail systems, in 2007 FTA
introduced a requirement for these systems agencies to report Average
Weekday Unlinked Passenger Trips and
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Actual Passenger Car Revenue Miles by four time categories: Weekday
a.m. Peak, Weekday Midday, Weekday p.m. Peak and Weekday Other. FTA
proposes to exempt rail systems with 9 or fewer rail vehicles operated
in maximum services from this requirement, so as to reduce the
reporting burden on these small systems.
Employee Resources (R-10) Form
FTA proposes to add reporting of Paid Non-Work Hours to this form.
This data was previously reported on the F-50 Form, which is being
dropped.
Maintenance Performance (R-20) Form
FTA proposes to drop the reporting requirement for Total Labor
Hours for Inspection and Maintenance. This information is already
reported in the R-10 Form.
FTA also proposes to require that this form be completed by transit
agencies for purchased transportation service (it is currently only
required for directly operated services). These data would produce a
clear picture of the role of maintenance breakdowns in transit service.
Energy Consumption (R-30) Form
FTA proposes to drop the lines on this form for certain rarely-used
fuels, specifically, Methanol, Bunker Fuel, and Grain Additive. These
fuels will still be reportable under the Other Fuels category.
FTA also proposes to require that this form be completed for
purchased transportation services (it is currently only required for
directly operated services). These data would support the significant
public interest in the fuel needs and emissions of transit services.
Stations and Maintenance Facilities (A-10) Form
FTA proposes to expand some of the reporting requirements for
stations. Currently, FTA requires transit agencies to only report how
many of their stations are multi-modal. FTA proposes to begin requiring
transit agencies to specify the nature of the multi-modal services at
each station. Transit agencies will be able to group together similar
stations, as is done for asset reporting on revenue vehicles. For
example, a transit agency will be able to report that it has 10
stations that are multi-modal with light rail and motorbus service. In
addition to reporting the transit modes providing service at each
station, FTA proposes to have transit agencies indicate if the transit
station has Intercity Bus, Amtrak, Airport, Seaport, Car Rental,
Bicycle Rental, or Parking Lot facilities.
For motorbus, trolleybus, and light rail service, FTA proposes to
ask transit agencies to report how many stops and how many shelters
that they have. Previously, FTA only collected the number of enclosed
stations for each mode, which understated the number of transit
stations for these services.
Both of these data collections will assist FTA in assessing the
scope and needs of the Nation's transit systems for the biennial
Conditions and Performance Report to Congress.
Transit Way Mileage (A-20) Form
FTA proposes to merge this Form with the Fixed Guideway Segments
(S-20) Form, to reduce reporting burden. For each segment of rail fixed
guideway reported on the S-20 form, FTA proposes to have transit
agencies report the construction-type of the segment (e.g. exclusive
guideway at-grade, at-grade with crossings, non-exclusive at-grade,
open-cut, elevated on fill, elevated structure, and subway) and the
number of grade crossings for the segment. For each segment of non-rail
fixed guideway reported on the S-20 form, FTA proposes to have transit
agencies report whether the segment is exclusive right-of-way or
controlled-access right-of-way. This change will simplify the reporting
requirements, reduce the large number of reporting errors made on the
A-20 form, and reduce the number of forms FTA requires of its
reporters.
Revenue Vehicle Inventory (A-30) Form
FTA proposes to simply collect whether the vehicles are compliant
with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA Accessible), and to not
separately collect those vehicles that are ADA Accessible by virtue of
having lifts and those that are ADA Accessible by virtue of having
ramps or low floors.
FTA also proposes to stop collecting Total Miles on Active Vehicles
During this Time Period. This information is infrequently used and is
duplicative of information on total miles collected on the S-10 Form.
Additionally, since the A-10 form only collects information on vehicles
that are active at the end of a transit agency's fiscal year, this
information cannot be used as a measure of total miles from the
previous year. FTA is retaining collection of Average Lifetime Miles
per Active Vehicle as a measure of asset condition and age.
Federal Funding Allocation (FFA-10) Form
FTA proposes to make this form required for all transit agencies
serving more than one urbanized area, or an urbanized area and a non-
urbanized area. This form is currently required only for transit
agencies serving an urbanized area over 200,000 in population and
either a non-urbanized area or another urbanized area. This form is
used to allocate service data from transit agencies across the various
urbanized areas (and any non-urbanized areas) served by the transit
agency for purposes of apportioning Urbanized Area Formula Grants. With
the passage of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient,
Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), the
Urbanized Area Formula Grant formula was amended to include grants for
Small Transit-Intensive Cities (STIC Grants.) Prior to SAFETEA-LU
service data was only used to apportion Urbanized Area Formula Grants
to urbanized areas over 200,000 in population. The STIC Grants,
however, use service data to apportion grants to urbanized areas under
200,000 in population. Therefore, FTA must require the FFA-10 form from
transit agencies in small urbanized areas, in order to ensure to
support the accurate apportionment of STIC Grants.
Issued in Washington, DC, this 1st day of February 2008.
James S. Simpson,
Administrator.
[FR Doc. E8-2163 Filed 2-6-08; 8:45 am]
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