The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) was created by the Department ofTransportation Act of 1966. It is one of ten agencies within the U.S. Department ofTransportation concerned with intermodal transportation. FRA promotes safe,environmentally sound, successful railroad transportation to meet the needs of all customers today and tomorrow.
FRA's Office of Railroad Safety promotes and regulates safety throughout the Nation's railroad industry. The office executes its regulatory and inspection responsibilities through a diverse staff of railroad safety experts.
The Federal Railroad Administration is responsible for working with stakeholders to develop cohesive goals and policies for maintaining and improving the U.S. freight and passenger rail networks. This section covers various efforts across America and the world in helping to deliver safe, reliable, and efficient rail transportation.
FRA Research & Development (R&D) projects contribute to the FRA's safety regulatory processes, to railroad suppliers, to railroads involved in the transportation of freight, intercity passengers, commuters, and to railroad employees and their labor organizations.
In this section, we provide descriptions and comprehensive, official sources for FRA's regulations (also called rules), selected legislation, as well as policy and guidance documents. Additionally, you will find current topics of high interest or significant impact to Congress, railroads, employees, labor, public interest groups and other stakeholders.
FRA supports passenger and freight railroading through a variety of competitive grant, dedicated grant, and loan programs to develop safety improvements, relieve congestion, and encourage the expansion and upgrade of passenger and freight rail infrastructure and services. FRA also provides training and technical assistance to grantees and stakeholders.
The Federal Railroad Administration Office of Communications is the primary link between the agency and reporters, the public and others who have an interest in our nation's rail network.
The FRA eLibrary contains all the documents that are found throughout the FRA Public Website. Multiple pages on the website may link to the same eLibrary item based on its set of metadata.
Initial Development of Alternatives Technical Memorandum Appendix B
08
Jul
2016
AUTHOR: Federal Railroad Administration SUBJECT: Environmental Protection KEYWORDS: Initial Development of Alternatives Technical Memorandum Appendix B ABSTRACT: This memo describes the process used to develop the screening criteria that will be used to establish the set of
alternatives to be carried forward into the Service‐level Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Texas‐
Oklahoma Passenger Rail Study (TOPRS). The major products associated with the Alternatives Analysis task are
outlined below, along with the goals the criteria were designed to meet. In addition, the process used to
develop the list of criteria is described. The key steps of the process included a brainstorming session among the
project task leads, development of an initial list of criteria, metrics and refinement from task leads, alignment
with the project Purpose and Need, and final review and edits by the project management team.