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ExpectMore.govExpectMore.gov home pageEXPECT FEDERAL PROGRAMS TO PERFORM WELL, AND BETTER EVERY YEAR.
Program Assessment

Program

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Railroad Research and Development

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Research and Development (R&D) Program conducts work that directly supports the agency's regulatory safety mission work. The purpose of the program is to support FRA's efforts to sustain the safety and efficiency of the rail system.

Rating

What This Rating Means

PERFORMING
Moderately Effective

In general, a program rated Moderately Effective has set ambitious goals and is well-managed. Moderately Effective programs likely need to improve their efficiency or address other problems in the programs' design or management in order to achieve better results.
  • The R&D program focuses on practical and relevant research. It conducts applied research that produces technologies and innovations that can be directly adopted by the rail industry. For example, FRA developed a has developed a track geometry car that can precisely detect misallignments in the rails.
  • FRA's research findings often guide the development of its rail safety regulations. For example, FRA is examining a 2002 accident that caused one death and 11 injuries due to the release of anhydrous ammonia. This work will directly influence FRA's development of tank car structural integrity regulations.
  • FRA frequently follows R&D management best practices. For example, it seeks stakeholder input on research agendas and requests outside merit reviews of its research outcomes.

Improvement Plan

About Improvement Plans

We are taking the following actions to improve the performance of the program:

  • Developing a strategic framework to manage the program and its component research projects to be coordinated by a new staff member provided in 2006.
  • Implementing a process for tracking on-budget and on-schedule efficiency measures.
  • Quantifying progress made towards achieving performance goals at the R&D project level.

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