drfPlantTouristRRSurveyPartBfdr

INFORMATION COLLECTION

FEDERAL RAILROAD ADMINISTRATION

SUPPORTING JUSTIFICATION – Part B

Survey of Plant and Insular Tourist Railroads

Subject to Bridge Safety

OMB No. 2130-new

1. Description of sampling method to be used.

Data on the number of entities (e.g., establishments, State and local government units, households, or persons) in the universe covered by the collection and in the corresponding sample are to be provided in tabular form for the universe as a whole and for each of the strata in the proposed sample. Indicate expected response rates for the collection as a whole. If the collection had been conducted previously, include the actual response rate achieved during the last collection.

Respondent universe consists of railroads, industrial installations, and insular tourist railroads. It is estimated that there are 695 railroads, 500 industrial installations, and 20 insular tourist railroads.

The existence of industrial installations may be reported by either the serving railroad or the installation itself; however the ultimate goal is to learn of the existence of industrial installations that include one or more railroad bridges over which rail equipment is operated by a general system railroad. The existence of an insular tourist railroad is expected to be reported by the railroad itself.

All responses received will be evaluated to determine whether the reported entity is subject to the FRA Bridge Safety Standards regulation. Those entities determined to be subject to the regulation will be added to FRA’s list of regulated entities.

No sampling or other respondent selection methods will be used.

Response to this survey is strictly voluntary.

Respondent group	Size of Universe	Expected Response Rate	# of Respondents
Industrial installations	500	40%	200
Insular tourist railroads	20	50%	10

2. Description of procedures for information collection, including statistical methodology for stratification and sample selection.

Once this information collection is approved, FRA will publish a Federal Register Notice requesting any railroad serving an industrial installation and moving railroad equipment over bridges within the plant, or the installation itself, to advise FRA by email that there are railroad bridges within the installation potentially subject to FRA Bridge Safety Standards. Similarly, in that same notice, FRA will request insular tourist railroads whose tracks are supported by one or more bridges to advise FRA of their existence by email. FRA anticipates providing a dedicated email address for reporting industrial installations and insular tourist railroads. Any responses received will be evaluated, and the entity contacted when appropriate, to determine whether the FRA Bridge Safety Standards apply.

No statistical methods will be used to stratify or otherwise sample the data.

Estimation Procedure

Railroad accident /incident reporting requirements found at 49 CFR Part 225 and 2015 Surface Transportation Bureau (STD) data indicate that there are 695 Class III railroads. Due to reporting lag time and the fact that some railroads cease to operate while others start up, this figure (695) is considered to be approximate. With regard to the number of industrial installations potentially subject to the FRA Bridge Safety Standards, there are no known data sources on which to base an estimate. As far as the insular tourist railroads, a comparison was made between the Part 225 reporting data and a list of tourist and museum railroads compiled by the Association of Tourist and Railroad Museums; this comparison revealed 10 entities that are not required to report under Part 225, but are likely to be subject to the FRA Bridge Safety Standards. Recognizing that not all insular tourist railroads may be members of the Association, the figure (10) was doubled, arriving at an estimate of 20 insular tourist railroads.

Degree of Accuracy Needed for the Purpose Described in the Justification

All industrial installations and insular tourist railroads identified in responses and determined to be subject to the FRA Bridge Safety Standards will increase the completeness of FRA’s list of regulated entities.

Unusual Problems Requiring Specialized Sampling Procedures, and

There are no such problems. No specialized sampling procedures will be utilized. FRA considered the issue of sample frames. A treatise posited four basic problems of sampling frames:¹

1. Missing elements: Some members of the population are not included in the frame.

2. Foreign elements: The non-members of the population are included in the frame.

3. Duplicate entries: A member of the population is surveyed more than once.

4. Groups or clusters: The frame lists clusters instead of individuals.

FRA considered potential sampling frame issues and found them not to be problematic. Here are the potential sampling frame issues FRA considered:

1. Missing elements: Since the responses are voluntary, FRA expects some missing elements in any event. If FRA fails to identify a potential respondent, the effect would be the same as if that entity had not voluntarily responded. Where FRA has not identified an entity subject to Part 237 bridge safety standards through a survey, FRA will attempt to identify such entities through direct observations by FRA field staff, and by inquiries with railroads operating over the general system of rail transportation that have encountered bridges owned by those entities. FRA believes this reasonably achieves the program goals supported by the surveys.

2. Foreign elements: If a non-member of the population has a railroad bridge, for example a rail transit system not connected to the general system of rail transportation, the worst outcome would be that FRA provides a non-regulatory safety inspection of a railroad bridge not under its regulatory authority.

3. Duplicate entries: FRA will provide reporting codes for affected entities, and these codes will be unique, so there is very little risk of duplicate entries.

4. Groups or clusters: FRA is surveying entities. If any entity chooses to report several installations as one, FRA will still learn the location of the railroad bridges in question.

Any Use of Periodic (Less Frequent than Annual) Data Collection Cycles to Reduce Burden

This voluntary collection is anticipated to be ongoing as new industrial installations or insular tourist railroads come into existence.

3. Description of methods to maximize response rate and to deal with non-response issues.

No methods will be employed to maximize the response rate as there is no way to ascertain or judge what the real respondent universe is.

Response is strictly voluntary.

4. Describe any test procedures or methods to be undertaken.

No test procedures or methods will be employed.

5. Provide name and phone number of individuals consulted on statistical aspects of study design and other persons who will collect/analyze information for agency.

No statistical analysis will be conducted on the data collected as the data will be used to better enforce FRA’s Bridge Safety Standards regulations.

Data will be collected by David R. Killingbeck, PE, Chief Engineer – Structures at the Federal Railroad Administration. Mr. Killingbeck can be reached at the following number: 202-493-6251, as well as that the following e-mail address:

[email protected]

1 Leslie Kish (1995). Survey sampling. Wiley. ISBN 978-0-471-10949-5. Retrieved 11 January 2011.

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