National Transit Database: Capital Asset Reporting, 48971-48974 [2016-17075]

Agencies

• Federal Transit Administration
• DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 143 (Tuesday, July 26, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 48971-48974]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-17075]



Federal Register / Vol. 81 , No. 143 / Tuesday, July 26, 2016 / 
Notices

[[Page 48971]]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Transit Administration

[Docket No. FTA-2014-0006 and FTA-2015-0029]


National Transit Database: Capital Asset Reporting

AGENCY: Federal Transit Administration, DOT.

ACTION: Notice; Response to comments.

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SUMMARY: This notice finalizes the expansion of the Federal Transit 
Administration's (FTA) National Transit Database (NTD) Asset Inventory 
reporting requirements.

DATES: The reporting requirements will be optional in report year 2017 
with full implementation required in report year 2018.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Maggie Schilling, National Transit 
Database Program Manager, FTA Office of Budget and Policy, (202) 366-
2054 or margaret.schilling@dot.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Table of Contents

A. Background
B. Response to Comments on Expansion of Capital Asset Reporting
C. Overview of Final Requirements

A. Background

    On August 19, 2014, FTA published a Federal Register notice 
(initial notice) (Docket No. FTA-2014-0006, 79 FR 49146) for comment on 
proposed revisions to the NTD Reporting Manual. The notice described 
various proposed changes to the NTD annual module, including a revised 
capital asset inventory reporting module for urban reporters. In 
response to the initial notice, commenters requested that FTA postpone 
the implementation of the expanded asset inventory until after the 
publication of the Transit Asset Management Notice of Proposed 
Rulemaking. FTA agreed with this request and a second Federal Register 
noticed was published on November 18, 2015 (Docket No. FTA-2015-0029, 
80 FR 72137). The second notice responded to comments received in 
response to proposals in the initial notice. In addition, in response 
to comments, the second notice proposed changes to FTA's initial 
proposed reporting requirements, and requested comment on these 
proposed changes. he comment period for this second notice closed on 
January 19, 2016.
    The proposed changes to the NTD Reporting Manual stem from 
amendments to Federal transit law made by the Moving Ahead for Progress 
in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) (Pub. L. 112-141, July 6, 2012), which 
require recipients of chapter 53 funds to report to the NTD any 
information relating to a transit asset inventory or condition 
assessment conducted by the recipient. (49 U.S.C. 5335(c)). Currently, 
the NTD only collects asset inventory information on revenue vehicles 
and summary counts for other asset categories, such as maintenance 
facilities and fixed guideway. There are some assets, such as signal or 
communications systems, for which NTD collects no data. In the both the 
initial and second notice, FTA proposed to collect additional asset 
inventory data to meet the asset inventory and condition reporting 
requirements at 49 U.S.C. 5335(c).
    In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act, FTA included in the 
second notice a summary of the burden hours and costs for this enhanced 
reporting requirement. FTA estimated that the initial year burden 
nationally would be 18,636 hours for urban reporters and 13,097 hours 
for state and rural reporters, or 31,097 hours in total. This 
represents a 10.5% increase to the total NTD reporting requirement in 
the first year. FTA estimated the burden in subsequent years at 9,318 
hours for urban reporters and 6,549 for state and rural reporters, for 
a total of 15,867 hours, representing a 5.2% increase to the total NTD 
reporting requirement.

B. Response to Comments on Expansion of Capital Asset Reporting

    The comment period for the second notice closed on January 19, 
2016. FTA received 25 comments. Following is a summary of the comments 
received with FTA responses.
    Comment: FTA received a number of comments expressing concern over 
the additional burden imposed by expanding the asset inventory. Twenty 
commenters stated that the proposal was too burdensome. Thirteen 
commenters expressed concern that the additional reporting burden may 
divert resources away from transit service provision. Eight commenters 
felt the burden estimates provided by FTA were `understated'.
    Response: The final Transit Asset Management (TAM) rule, also 
published in today's Federal Register, requires all agencies to (1) 
create and maintain an asset inventory along with condition 
assessments, and (2) develop performance targets. FTA calculated a 
paperwork burden estimate for those tasks and included that estimate in 
the TAM rulemaking process. The NTD burden estimate provided in the 
second NTD notice assumes that an agency will already have an asset 
inventory in place as part of its compliance with the TAM rule and, 
therefore, only includes the time and costs estimated to enter existing 
asset inventory information into the NTD reporting system. In some 
cases, modifications to existing data may be necessary to enter this 
information into the NTD. The burden estimates provided in the second 
notice take into account small modifications of existing information in 
the asset inventories required by the TAM rule for reporting in the 
standard formats established by the NTD.
    In calculating the burden estimate for NTD reporting, FTA asked 
several agencies to enter their existing asset inventory information 
into the proposed format and report the time necessary to complete this 
task. Three agencies completed an entire report and their experience 
with the new reporting requirements served as the foundation for the 
final estimates. A `per field' reporting time was calculated and then 
multiplied out over the estimated data fields expected nationally to 
create a final burden estimate.
    FTA remains committed to implementing reasonable data reporting 
requirements, while also meeting the requirements in the law for 
reporting asset condition information. In response to the initial round 
of comments on the asset inventory, FTA made several modifications to 
reduce the overall reporting burden, including removing replacement 
cost information for all asset types. FTA believes that this asset 
inventory fulfills the MAP-21 update to 49 U.S.C. 5335(c) that 
recipients report asset inventory and condition assessment information 
to the NTD and allows meaningful data analysis on the national capital 
needs of the transit industry. While FTA recognizes that the proposed 
changes would result in an increase over the current reporting 
requirements, the highest burden would exist in the first year of 
start-up reporting. Once an asset has been entered into the inventory 
module, the information would be pre-populated for each subsequent 
year. Reporters only would be responsible for providing annual updates 
to new or retired asset inventory items in subsequent years.
    Comment: An additional area of concern was related to the new 
reporting requirements for recipients of funding under 49 U.S.C. 5310 
(section 5310). Nine commenters stated that reporting for section 5310 
recipients should be limited or eliminated entirely. Ten commenters 
felt that any reporting done on behalf of section 5310 recipients 
should be done at the designated recipient or State level rather

[[Page 48972]]

than the subrecipient level to minimize the burden of this new 
reporting. This same group of commenters suggested that only vehicles 
used in public transit and, preferably only vehicles purchased with 
federal money, should be reported. Five commenters requested that 
performance targets and reporting should be removed for section 5310 
recipients.
    Response: FTA is committed to developing requirements that are 
mindful of the burden for small transit providers. FTA understands that 
direct reporting may prove too difficult for small section 5310 
recipients. In order to minimize this burden, FTA concurs with the 
comment that reporting on the assets for section 5310 recipients should 
be performed at the designated recipient or State level. The reporting 
guidance will be updated to reflect this change.
    In response to the applicability of reporting for section 5310 
reporters: The NTD asset inventory requirements will mirror the 
reporting requirements established by the Transit Asset Management 
rule. The final reporting requirements for the National TAM System 
apply to all chapter 53 recipients or subrecipients who own, operate, 
or manage public transportation capital assets. FTA currently requires 
NTD reports from recipients of funds under the Urbanized Area Formula 
Program (49 U.S.C. 5307 or section 5307) and the Rural Area Formula 
Program (49 U.S.C. 5311 or section 5311). As such, this new rule 
replaces references to section 5307 and section 5311 recipients with 
references to recipients and subrecipients of chapter 53 funds. This 
change will require recipients and subrecipients of other FTA grant 
programs, such as the section 5310 formula program for the enhanced 
mobility of seniors and individuals with disabilities, who are not also 
receiving funds under section 5307 or section 5311, to start reporting 
to the NTD. FTA will not apply existing NTD reporting requirements to 
all recipients of chapter 53 funds. FTA will apply only the reporting 
requirements proposed under the National TAM System to those transit 
providers that do not currently report.
    Comment: Eleven commenters requested a reduced set of reporting 
requirements for section 5311 recipients. This group of commenters 
asked to have required reporting reduced below current NTD reporting 
levels for revenue vehicles.
    Response: The revenue vehicle inventory required for section 5311 
recipients is already a greatly reduced version of vehicle inventory 
required for urban reporters. In the expanded asset inventory, FTA is 
only requesting one additional data element for revenue vehicles from 
section 5311 recipients: A useful life benchmark for each fleet, which 
is necessary for calculating the performance measures under the TAM 
rule. Additionally, FTA's research indicates that no exclusively rural 
subrecipients provide rail fixed guideway service, so rural 
subrecipients will not need to report the slow zones metric. For the 
other two performance measures, facility conditions and service 
vehicles, FTA is proposing to collect only the minimum data required 
for these measures.
    Comment: Fifteen commenters stated that the proposed inventory 
should not include contractor assets. One transit agency specifically 
stated that condition assessments and replacement cost information 
should not be required for any contractor-owned assets.
    Response: FTA understands the difficulty of providing detailed 
information on contractor assets. However, the NTD plans to follow the 
decision codified in the final TAM rule that a TAM Plan should, to a 
certain extent, take into account third party assets used in the 
provision of public transportation service. The final rule requires 
that all assets used in the provision of transit service be included in 
a transit providers' asset inventory, including those assets that are 
owned, operated, or maintained by a third party or were procured 
jointly. However, agencies would only be responsible for conducting 
condition assessments, establishing performance targets, and reporting 
these condition assessments and performance targets to the NTD for 
capital assets for which it has direct capital responsibility. A 
transit provider has direct capital responsibility for an asset if that 
asset has been or currently is included in its program of capital 
projects. A transit provider also has direct capital responsibility for 
an asset if it can reasonably anticipate that the asset will be 
included in its program of capital projects during the TAM plan horizon 
period. Once an asset becomes a part of a transit provider's capital 
program, the transit provider must comply with the final rule's 
condition assessment, target setting, and investment prioritization 
requirements.
    NTD reporters currently are required to report a limited amount of 
information on non-dedicated or contractor-owned fleets. In the case of 
non-dedicated contractor-owned vehicle fleets, the NTD asks reporters 
to provide information on a `representative vehicle' to the current 
revenue vehicle inventory. The NTD asset inventory would contain the 
same requirement moving forward.
    FTA also requires that agencies provide basic information for all 
passenger stations that they use for transit service regardless of 
ownership or capital responsibility. Additionally, basic inventory 
information is required for all track and guideway regardless of 
ownership or capital responsibility. Inventory information for 
maintenance and administrative facilities are only reportable if the 
agency has full or partial capital replacement responsibility for the 
facility.
    Comment: Twelve commenters requested the removal of service 
equipment from the NTD Asset Inventory.
    Response: In order to best align the NTD asset inventory with the 
TAM rule reporting requirements, FTA believes it is appropriate to keep 
an inventory of `service equipment' in the NTD. This information will 
provide verification of the TAM performance targets and performance 
against those targets. In addition, non-revenue service vehicles and 
equipment represent a large capital expense for some agencies. 
Including a basic inventory of these vehicles and equipment in the NTD 
will provide additional clarity on the state of good repair backlog for 
the transit industry.
    The final TAM rule requires transit providers to report the 
percentage of non-revenue, support-service and maintenance vehicles 
that have met or exceeded their useful life benchmark. This is the 
identified SGR performance measure for equipment. Non-revenue service 
vehicles are an easily understood and readily identifiable category of 
equipment, and the age-based performance measure is the most simple and 
straightforward performance measure available.
    Comment: A number of comments related to consistency between the 
NTD's proposed asset inventory and other FTA reporting requirements 
and/or requests. Three commenters suggested that the requirements and 
organization of data in the NTD asset inventory should mirror those of 
the Transit Economic Requirement Model (TERM). Five commenters stated 
that the assets reported to the NTD should not necessarily be subject 
to the Transit Asset Management rule requirements.
    Response: FTA developed the proposed asset inventory with the TERM 
requirements in mind. While the requirements are not identical, the 
proposed NTD inventory is intended to supplement the data currently 
available through annual surveys for TERM. In some cases, the data 
collected through this NTD inventory will replace

[[Page 48973]]

estimated data in TERM to provide a more accurate picture of the state 
of the nation's transit assets.
    FTA expects that the assets collected through this NTD inventory 
will often only be a subset of the assets a transit provider will 
collect to create their TAM plan. This inventory is intended to provide 
high level information on major asset classes. While an agency may find 
this level of granularity to be sufficient, FTA does not intend to 
limit an agency's ability to create a more detailed inventory to inform 
its TAM plan.
    Comment: A number of commenters expressed concern over the 
implementation timeline. Ten commenters asked that the final 
implementation be postponed. The suggested timelines ranged from `after 
the final Transit Asset Management (TAM) rule' to up to two years after 
the TAM rule was finalized.
    Response: FTA shares the concern that reporters may need additional 
time to complete these new reporting requirements. Taking into 
consideration the feedback from commenters, FTA will postpone final 
implementation of the majority of asset inventory reporting 
requirements until report year 2018, beginning in September 2018. FTA 
will allow for optional reporting in report year 2017 (beginning in 
September 2017). The NTD asset inventory will auto-populate information 
each year based on the assets entered in the previous year's report. 
The optional reporting year in report year 2017 will give agencies two 
reporting cycles to enter all reportable assets into the NTD system. 
FTA will also consider additional requests from individual transit 
systems for an extension of the reporting requirements beyond 2018 on a 
case-by-case basis, in accordance with the existing NTD policies for 
such requests.
    While asset reporting will be postponed, FTA will require agencies 
to provide their performance targets for the four performance measures 
required by the Transit Asset Management rule. The TAM rule requires 
agencies to report their performance targets three months after the 
effective date of the final rule. The NTD system will be the reporting 
tool used to capture these targets. The NTD system will allow reporting 
of these targets by October 2016. FTA understands that the targets 
provided in October 2016, and in the first few years of reporting, will 
necessarily by preliminary targets. However, FTA is bound by the 
statutory provision requiring targets within three months of the final 
rule.
    Comment: Three commenters requested FTA to engage in additional 
collaboration with the industry to develop asset inventory reporting 
requirements.
    Response: FTA engaged a number of industry professionals and 
transit agencies during the development of these reporting 
requirements. Considerable research was conducted on the current state 
of asset inventory practices across the industry. FTA contracted with a 
major engineering firm, AECOM, which has been involved in developing 
asset inventories at numerous transit systems, to assist FTA in 
organizing the development of the proposed NTD asset inventory 
requirements. Additionally, nine (9) transit agencies were engaged to 
provide direct testing and feedback of the proposed data collection 
requirements, and FTA made significant revisions to the proposed data 
collection requirements in response to that feedback. FTA has also 
provided two opportunities for the transit industry to comment on these 
requirements through the Federal Register notice and comment process, 
and has continued to revise and refine the data collection requirements 
in response to these comments. Finally, FTA held two informational 
webinars as well as several presentations of this proposal at industry 
conferences and events, where FTA also received useful feedback to 
improve the proposed data collection. Based on these efforts, FTA 
believes it has refined the data collection requirements to collect the 
minimum data necessary in the least-burdensome way, while also 
satisfying the mandatory statutory requirements for improved asset 
inventory and asset condition information.
    Comment: FTA received a number of comments related to the dollar 
thresholds for reportable assets. Several commenters asked for clarity 
on the $10,000 threshold for reportable assets. Eleven commenters 
suggested that assets should only be reportable if they have an initial 
value of $50,000 or more.
    Response: FTA did not provide any dollar thresholds in the asset 
inventory reporting requirements and does not intend to set a threshold 
for reportable assets in this inventory. In most cases, the assets 
requested in the asset inventory are in excess of $50,000 in value. In 
a few cases some assets may fall below this threshold, such as vehicles 
or sedans used by transit agencies for their staff or demand response 
services. In all cases, however, the reporting requirements are clear 
as to which assets must be included--i.e., to include all buildings, or 
to include all road-worthy revenue service vehicles--making a dollar 
threshold unnecessary.
    Comment: Five commenters requested a bulk upload feature to 
facilitate the reporting of this information.
    Response: FTA intends to develop bulk upload capabilities for the 
NTD reporting system. FTA hopes to have this feature in place in time 
for optional reporting in the fall of 2017.
    Comment: One commenter asked FTA to clarify that reporting will not 
be uniform across modes, specifically that some fields may be left 
blank if they do not apply to a mode.
    Response: FTA concurs that there will be instances where some data 
requested will not apply to a specific mode. FTA will ensure that there 
is additional clarity in the reporting guidance to address this 
request.
    Comment: A number of commenters asked FTA to clarify that the 
receipt of funds pursuant to 49 U.S.C. 5339 (section 5339) would not 
impact the NTD asset inventory reporting requirements.
    Response: FTA believes this problem was resolved by the 
implementation of the FAST Act. In any event, FTA clarifies that if a 
State is a direct recipient of section 5339 funds and passes those 
funds through to subrecipients, this does not create an obligation for 
the State to report to FTA on behalf of those subrecipients of section 
5339 funds if those subrecipients are already directly reporting to the 
NTD as direct recipients of section 5307 funds.
    Comment: One commenter requested guidance on calculating a useful 
life benchmark (ULB) that is not based on accounting depreciation 
standards.
    Response: The calculation of a useful life benchmark may vary 
considerably between transit operators based on original equipment 
specifications, operating environment and maintenance or capital 
replacement schedules. Due to these variations, FTA intends to leave 
the calculation of such a metric up to the individual providers. To 
facilitate reporting, FTA will provide a ULB estimate based on the 
Transit Economic Requirements Model (TERM) depreciation curves in the 
NTD reporting system. These estimates will also be available in the 
reporting manual. The ULB estimate provided by NTD will be the point at 
which a vehicle reaches 2.5 in TERM.
    Comment: One commenter requested clarification on the relationship 
between the A-50 and A-55 forms in the new asset inventory.
    Response: The A-50 and A-55 forms collect information on the 
guideway and track elements, respectively. The A-50 contains 
information about guideway elements including guideway type (at-

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grade ballast, elevated/concrete etc.) and power/signal elements 
including substations and third rail. The A-55 collects information on 
the track including linear feet of tangent and curve track as well as 
crossovers and turnouts.
    Comment: A number of commenters submitted feedback on the 
requirements for the TAM Notice of Proposed Rulemaking under this 
notice. In general, the comments related to the proposed TAM Plan 
elements or granularity of data required for the TAM plan.
    Response: As these comments are not directly applicable to the NTD 
Asset Inventory requirements they have not been further summarized or 
addressed in this notice.

C. Final Reporting Requirements

    The finalized reporting requirements can be found on the NTD Web 
site at: www.transit.dot.gov/ntd.
    The reporting requirements will be optional in report year 2017 
with full implementation required in report year 2018. An overview of 
these requirements is as follows:
    1. Administrative and Maintenance Facilities. Reported for all 
facilities for which an agency has a capital responsibility. Collects 
information on administrative and maintenance facilities used to supply 
transit service, including facility name, street address, square 
footage, year built or substantially reconstructed, and primary transit 
mode supported. Also includes a condition assessment at least once 
every three years for facilities for which an agency has capital 
replacement responsibility.
    2. Passenger and Parking Facilities. Reported for all passenger and 
parking facilities used in transit service. Collects information on 
passenger facilities and passenger parking facilities used in the 
provision of transit service, including facility name, street address, 
square footage and number of parking spaces, year built or 
substantially reconstructed, primary mode and percent of capital 
responsibility. Also includes a condition assessment at least once 
every three years for facilities for which an agency has capital 
replacement responsibility.
    3. Fixed Guideway. Reported for all fixed guideway used in transit 
service. Collects data on linear guideway assets and power and signal 
equipment, including the length of specific types of guideway and 
corresponding equipment, reported as network totals by mode and 
operating agreement. The data includes quantity, expected service 
years, date of construction or major rehabilitation (within a ten year 
window) and percent of capital responsibility.
    4. Track. Reported for all track used in transit service. Collects 
data on track assets, including length and total number of track 
special work, reported as network totals by rail mode and operating 
agreement. The data includes expected service years, date of 
construction or major rehabilitation and percent of capital 
responsibility.
    5. Revenue Vehicles. Reporting requirements remain the same for 
urban/full and rural/reduced reporters with the addition of a useful 
life benchmark for each vehicle fleet. Section 5310 recipients now 
report according to the rural/reduced requirements.
    6. Service Vehicles. Reported for all non-revenue service vehicles 
for which an agency has capital replacement responsibility. Collects 
data on service vehicles that support transit service delivery, 
maintain revenue vehicles, and perform administrative activities. The 
data includes quantity, expected service life, and year of manufacture. 
Also includes a useful life benchmark for each vehicle type.
    7. Transit Asset Management Performance Metrics. The metrics 
included in the Transit Asset Management rule are reported annually to 
the NTD:
    (a) Equipment-Service Vehicles. The performance measure for non-
revenue, support and maintenance vehicles is the percentage of vehicles 
that have met or exceeded their useful life benchmark (ULB). To 
determine the ULB, a Transit Provider may either use the default ULB 
established by FTA or a ULB established by the Transit Provider in 
consideration of local conditions and usage and approved by FTA. The 
NTD system will calculate annual performance based on the 
manufacturer's age information that is entered into the vehicle 
inventory. Reporters are required to provide one target for the 
percentage of classification of non-revenue vehicle that have met or 
exceeded their useful life benchmark for each service vehicle category.
    (b) Rolling Stock. The performance measure for rolling stock is the 
percentage of revenue vehicles within a particular asset class that 
have either met or exceeded their useful life benchmark (ULB). To 
determine the ULB, a recipient may either use the default ULB 
established by FTA or a ULB established by the recipient in 
consideration of local conditions and usage and approved by FTA. 
Recipients will report one target and useful life benchmark for each 
revenue vehicle classification. The NTD system will calculate annual 
performance based on the date of manufacture information entered into 
the vehicle inventory.
    (c) Rail fixed Guideway Infrastructure (track, signals, and 
systems). The performance measure for rail fixed guideway 
infrastructure is the percentage of track segments, signals, and 
systems with performance restrictions. Recipients will report a target 
and performance of this metric for each rail mode. FTA will provide 
additional technical assistance and guidance on how to measure a 
performance restriction.
    (d) Facilities. The performance measure for facilities is the 
percentage of all facilities rated below condition 3 on the condition 
scale used by FTA's Transit Economic Requirements Model (TERM). 
Reporters must provide a condition rating for each facility at least 
once every three years. The system will automatically calculate 
performance based on these reports. Reporters are also required to 
provide an annual target for each facility type. FTA will provide 
additional technical assistance and guidance on to measure a facility 
condition rating on the TERM scale.

    Issued this 14th day of July 2016 in Washington, DC.
Carolyn Flowers,
Acting Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2016-17075 Filed 7-25-16; 8:45 am]
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