The following statement was prepared by the Federal Railroad Administration and provided to the Rail

Vehicles Access Advisory Committee on December 4, 2014, regarding the attachment titled “ Guidance for ADAAG Applicability for Passenger Rail Equipment”.
PRIIA

– Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008. The Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008 (PRIIA) reauthorizes the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, better known as Amtrak, and strengthens the US passenger rail networ k by tasking Amtrak, the U.S. Department of Transportation (US DOT), Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), states, and other stakeholders in improving service, operations, and facilities. PRIIA focuses on intercity passenger rail, including Amtrak’s long

- distance routes and the Northeast Corridor (NEC), state

- sponsored corridors throughout the Nation, and the development of high

- speed rail corridors. The Technical Subcommittee (TSC) of the PRIIA 305 Next Generation Equipment Committee tasked the Accessibil ity Working Group (AWG) with reviewing the 2004 ADAAG and identifying accessibility requirements contained within ADAAG that could potentially apply to the PRIIA next generation passenger rail equipment. In December 2012, the U.S. Department of Transporta tion (USDOT) issued guidance that provides, “In a situation in which no specific standard is found in [49 C.F.R.] Part 38, passenger railroads should meet their nondiscrimination obligation by designing and building railcars compliant with the [ADAAG] stan dards available for comparable elements in buildings and facilities.” Thus, this task was an attempt to determine where the regulations were silent and to identify potentially applicable sections of the ADAAG that might apply to passenger rail equipment. It is also hoped that by having this document (i.e., the attached Guidelines for ADAAG Applicability for Passenger Rail Equipment) available, railroads and operators may be less likely to design railcar features that are not usable by persons with disabi lities.

For this review, the AWG created a subgroup team of seven members. The team consisted of representatives of the Federal Railroad Administration, the U.S. Access Board, Amtrak, and Oregon State University’s National Center for Accessible Transport ation. First, the team reviewed 49 C.F.R. Part 38, section by section, to identify all the elements in a railcar that Part 38 addresses. Next, the team reviewed the ADAAG for potential applicability in areas where Part 38 was silent. Finally, the full AWG committee reviewed and approved the team’s work. The team’s complete review is contained within the attached “Guidelines for ADAAG Applicability for Passenger Rail Equipment” document.

It is important to note that the AWG did not analyze whether a p articular ADAAG guideline was feasible for application in a railcar design, only whether a potential ADAAG equivalent guideline existed or not.

In addition accessibility design dimensions adopted for the PRIIA Bi

- level Passenger Rail Car specifications and those that are still being considered for the Single

- level Passenger Rail Carspecifications (e.g., heavier lift load requirement, longer lift platform, wider vestibule, and larger

wheelchair space) are not included in the attached review table.

Whil e this effort enabled the AWG to compile a more extensive list of guidance for accessible design in future rail vehicles than is available in Part 38’s regulations alone, the AWG cautions the PRIIA TSC and others who read this document to not infer that if an element is not defined or not contained in the attached document that by default there is no accessibility requirement for that railcar feature. One should remember that the ultimate goal of accessible design is to make a railcar feature “usable” by p ersons with disabilities. The ADAAG and Part 38 are tools for determining what makes a feature usable. However, provided they do not conflict with the regulations, there may be other transportation industry standards and recommended practices for accessi bility that could also be adopted for rail vehicles