Review of the Federal Railroad Administration’s Research and Development Program (2020) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 11-18
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11 1 Introduction The Federal Railroad Administration's (FRA's) Office of Research, Development, and Technology (RD&T)
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12 REVIEW OF FRA'S R&D PROGRAM RD&T requested this review specifically to provide strategic feedback, including feedback on the effectiveness of its research R&D support functions (i.e., planning, communications, and evaluation)
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INTRODUCTION 13 BOX 1-1 Statement of Task An ad hoc committee will conduct an expert review for the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Office of Research and Development (R&D)
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14 REVIEW OF FRA'S R&D PROGRAM setting, strategic planning, and evaluation (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine 2015)
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INTRODUCTION 15 APPROACH TO CONDUCTING THE REVIEW To conduct the review, the National Academies appointed a committee of 14 experts in fields relevant to the study charge, including railroad safety, track and bridge infrastructure, train control and communications, rolling stock, human factors, railroad management and labor, and research program evaluation. As required by the Statement of Task, the 14 members were each assigned to one of four subcommittees charged with conducting more detailed reviews of the work of the four RD&T divisions (see Figure 1-1)
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16 REVIEW OF FRA'S R&D PROGRAM way to facilitate the candid sharing of sensitive safety information is the Railroad Information Sharing Environment, which is under development by RD&T and builds on FRA's existing Confidential Close Call Reporting System. The committee took the view that an intangible benefit of the RD&T program is that it can provide this important nexus of open dialogue for the pursuit of safety improvements.
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INTRODUCTION 17 The purpose of requesting incident data was to determine if the research divisions appeared to be focusing their research on the most salient problems. It is important to emphasize that the subcommittees did not try to use the incident data to assess whether the research was successfully solving those problems or leading to increased safety outcomes.
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18 REVIEW OF FRA'S R&D PROGRAM that are provided in this longer report of the feedback from consulted stakeholders is not a substitute for the feedback that could be anticipated from a public workshop, the committee concluded that the planning and organizing needed to design, arrange, and execute a workshop that would be sufficiently insightful -- and not an exercise aimed mainly at demonstrating outreach -- was beyond its capabilities. However, the importance to RD&T of convening such workshops on a regular basis was recognized by the committee, as conveyed in its recommendations.
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