FRA Response to CSX Comments on PTC Quarterly Progress Report (Form FRA F6189.165)

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
FEDERAL RAILROAD ADMINISTRATION (FRA)
WASHINGTON, DC 20590
FRA’s Responses to CSX Transportation, Inc.’s Comments
Quarterly Positive Train Control (PTC) Progress Report Form
Docket No. FRA-2016-0002-N-13 (OMB Control No. 2130-0553)

On June 7, 2016, CSX Transportation, Inc. (CSXT) submitted comments to the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) in response to FRA’s request for approval of Form FRA F
6180.165, which is a quarterly form collecting information on railroads’ progress towards
implementing PTC systems. See 81 Fed. Reg. 28140 (May 9, 2016); see also 81 Fed. Reg.
11878 (Mar. 7, 2016); 49 U.S.C. § 20157(c). Below are summaries of CSXT’s comments and
FRA’s responses.
1. Summary of Comment: CSXT commented that the Quarterly PTC Progress Report form
(FRA F 6180.165) should be consistent with the information requested in the Annual PTC
Progress Report form (FRA F 6180.166).
FRA’s Response: FRA agrees. FRA revised the proposed quarterly form based on industry’s
written comments and oral feedback during the public meeting on April 19, 2016. See 81 Fed.
Reg. 11878 (Mar. 7, 2016) (inviting comments for 60 days). Any changes FRA has made to the
quarterly form will also be transferred to an updated annual form, subject to OMB approval,
thereby allowing railroads to transfer information more easily from the quarterly form to the
annual reporting form. The updated annual form would, for example, use consistent wording
and ordering and place the tables that are required only in the annual form at the very end. FRA
will submit an updated annual form to OMB for approval, following a 60-day comment period
on the form.
2. Summary of Comment: CSXT recommended that FRA delete the reporting metrics for
“PTC-Capable Event Recorders” and “PTC Displays” from Section 3.1, entitled “Locomotive
Status.” CSXT asserts that it does not currently track its installation of these hardware categories
and notes that its revised PTC implementation plan (PTCIP) does not track these metrics, as it is
not a required metric under 49 U.S.C § 20157(a)(2)(A)(iii).
FRA’s Response: During the public meeting FRA hosted on April 19, 2016, the Association of
American Railroads (AAR), on behalf of itself and its member railroads, including CSXT, had
requested that FRA delete from this table the rows regarding antennas, event recorders, displays,
and GPS receivers. First, FRA notes that, although these hardware categories were not
specifically identified by statute in the definition of “hardware,” FRA is authorized by the
Positive Train Control Enforcement and Implementation Act of 2015 to require railroads to
provide additional implementation information to FRA in progress reports. See 49 U.S.C.
§ 20157(c)(1)–(2); 49 CFR § 236.1009(h).

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In response to industry’s comments from April 2016, FRA did modify the quarterly form by
deleting the rows regarding antennas, GPS receivers, and secondary communications equipment,
thereby reducing the reporting burden significantly. However, FRA is not amenable to further
erasing levels of detail from this table by eliminating the rows entitled “Locomotives with PTCCapable Event Recorders Installed” and “Locomotives with PTC Displays Installed,” as CSXT
requests, because FRA has determined that such information is necessary to monitor railroads’
actual PTC implementation progress. Installation of these two hardware categories is an integral
milestone towards implementing a PTC system. Moreover, FRA modified the row titles in this
table to clarify that a railroad should be reporting in terms of locomotives—for example, the
railroad would report the quantity of locomotives with PTC displays installed, not the quantity of
PTC displays installed. In so doing, FRA further reduced the reporting burden, as this change
means railroads will not need to count and track each PTC display and event recorder (there
might be multiple in different types of locomotives). If a railroad did not provide information
regarding event recorders and PTC displays in its revised PTCIP, the form clarifies that the
railroad may write “N/A” in the column asking for the PTCIP year-end goal.
3. Summary of Comment: Regarding Section 3.2 “Infrastructure/Back Office Status,” CSXT
asks FRA to delete two questions that were not included in the original quarterly form that FRA
proposed on March 7, 2016. See 81 Fed. Reg. 11878 (Mar. 7, 2016). The two additional
questions are “How many physical back office locations are required for PTC operations, as
reported in the PTCIP?” and “How many physical back office locations have been constructed
with all necessary equipment installed?”
FRA’s Response: In the original version of the quarterly form, as proposed on March 7th, and in
the version of the annual form approved by OMB on March 16, 2016, FRA had asked railroads
to fill out a quantitative table on installation of back office equipment. During the public
meeting on April 19 and in written comments, several railroads and railroad associations took
issue with the format because (1) it is difficult to identify piece-by-piece back office equipment
and it is more informative to report to FRA instead how many back office locations have all
necessary equipment installed, and (2) most railroads only have 1 or 2 back office locations, and
the original table would not accurately reflect railroads’ status equipping back office
locations. Accordingly, FRA deleted the multi-faceted quantitative table regarding back office
installation and instead provided a more direct series of two questions (stated above), which zero
in on the key information about back office progress. By doing so, FRA actually decreased the
reporting burden for railroads.
4. Summary of Comment: Regarding Section 6 “Quarterly Update on Interoperability and
Other Formal Agreements,” CSXT asks FRA to delete FRA’s note regarding providing
“appendices as appropriate.” CSXT asserts that such language is unclear, and the approved
annual form does not contain such a note about providing appendices as appropriate.
FRA’s Response: In response to CSXT’s comment, FRA has further modified the instruction to
state “This section is provided to help railroads describe interoperability information. Please
provide any additional information (e.g., an appendix) as appropriate.” FRA intends to carry this
instructive phrase to its new annual form for 2017. In railroads’ original PTCIPs, railroads
attached copies of their interoperability agreements, and FRA wants to give railroads the option
of attaching an appendix to the progress reports if appropriate. Also, some railroads and
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organizations had generally asked for the reporting forms to provide the option of giving more
explanation, as opposed to only using tables.
5. Summary of Comment: CSXT requested that FRA provide the quarterly form in Microsoft
Word format. CSXT separately notes that the most reliable way to permanently redact
confidential information from a document is to convert the document to a PDF and redact the
information using the Adobe redaction tool.
FRA’s Response: FRA is open to railroads submitting their “public, redacted” versions of their
quarterly reports in a redacted PDF, as CSXT has requested and as railroads have previously
done. However, if a railroad submits a public, redacted version, the railroad must also submit a
“confidential” version to FRA, using the FRA-provided Excel form or the FRA-provided PDF
form (i.e., without further converting that confidential version). Providing the document to FRA
in the native format makes the data more accessible to FRA, allowing FRA to automatically load
the information into its tracking system (rather than manually) and, thus, internally track and
analyze the data more efficiently. FRA does not intend to make a Word Document format
available for the annual and quarterly forms because, during its review of railroads’ annual
reports in 2016, FRA experienced difficulties processing railroads’ information efficiently and in
a transferrable way through Word format. As such, FRA has proposed to provide the quarterly
form to railroads in fillable PDF or Excel formats.
As a final note, after FRA submitted the quarterly form to OMB for review on May 9, 2016,
FRA decided to make another modification to Section 6 for clarity. Specifically, in the table
labeled “Host Railroads Only,” FRA has modified the second column heading to read “Estimated
Quantity of Tenant Rolling Stock to be Equipped with PTC” instead of “Estimated Tenant
Locomotive Fleet” because railroads did not appear to understand the latter language when they
submitted their annual reports, which contained that latter language. FRA is making the same
modification, for clarity, in its proposed new annual form. Also, FRA decided to delete
extraneous overuse of the word “please” from the quarterly form before each text box.

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