[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 26 (Thursday, February 7, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 7361-7364]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-2163]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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 [email protected] (e-mail). For legal issues, Richard 
Wong, Office of the Chief Counsel, (202) 366-0675 (telephone); (202) 
366-3809 (fax); or [email protected] (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

[[Page 7363]]

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

[[Page 7364]]

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]
BILLING CODE 4910-57-P