README for “DOT Regions - Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Districts 2022-Present” dataset. U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), Federal Railroad Administration (FRA); U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) [distributor] 2025-06-09 ---------------------------------------------------------------- LINKS TO DATASET ---------------------------------------------------------------- A. Dataset archive link: https://doi.org/10.21949/1403481 B. NTAD catalog dataset link (Current Year): https://doi.org/10.21949/1528158 ---------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY OF DATASET ---------------------------------------------------------------- The DOT Regions - Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Districts 2022-Present dataset is from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), and is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT)/Bureau of Transportation Statistics’s (BTS's) National Transportation Atlas Database (NTAD). District boundaries represent geographic divisions of safety disciplines. These are no longer used to represent administrative boundaries. ---------------------------------------------------------------- TABLE OF CONTENTS ---------------------------------------------------------------- A. General Information B. Sharing/Access & Policies Information C. Data and Related File Overview D. Methodological Information E. Data-Specific Information for: DOT Regions - Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Districts 2022-Present [datasets] F. Update Log ---------------------------------------------------------------- A. GENERAL INFORMATION ---------------------------------------------------------------- 0. Title of Dataset: DOT Regions - Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Districts 2022-Present [dataset] 1. Description of Dataset: The DOT Regions - Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Districts 2022-Present dataset is from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), and is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT)/Bureau of Transportation Statistics’ (BTS's) National Transportation Atlas Database (NTAD). District boundaries represent geographic divisions of safety disciplines. These are no longer used to represent administrative boundaries. 2. Dataset archive link: https://doi.org/10.21949/1403481 3. Authorship Information: Principal Data Creator or Data Manager Contact Information Institution: U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Address: 1200 New Jersey Ave SE, Washington D.C. 20590 Contact: frapa@dot.gov Data Distributor Contact Information Name: National Transportation Atlas Database (NTAD) Institution: U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), Office of Spatial Analysis and Visualization (OSAV) Address: 1200 New Jersey Ave. SE, Washington D.C. 20590 Email: ntad@dot.gov 4. Date of data collection and update interval: This dataset is updated as needed. This dataset is updated as needed. Dataset Manager is contacted to verify changes to data resulting in NTAD update. The metadata is updated in the same manner. For the most recent data, please visit the NTAD catalog at https://doi.org/10.21949/1528158 5. Geographic location of data collection: United States of America 6. Information about funding sources that supported the collection of the data: Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) ---------------------------------------------------------------- B. SHARING/ACCESS & POLICIES INFORMATION ---------------------------------------------------------------- 0. Recommended citation for the data: U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) [distributor]. DOT Regions - Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Districts 2022-Present [datasets]. 1. Licenses/restrictions placed on the data: These data are in the Public Domain. 2. Was data derived from another source?: No. 3. This document was created to meet the requirements enumerated in the U.S. Department of Transportation's 'Plan to Increase Public Access to the Results of Federally-Funded Scientific Research' Version 1.1 << https://doi.org/10.21949/1520559 >> and guidelines suggested by the DOT Public Access website << https://doi.org/10.21949/1503647 >>, in effect and current as of December 03, 2020. ---------------------------------------------------------------- C. DATA & RELATED FILE OVERVIEW ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1. File List for the DOT Regions - Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Districts 2022-Present dataset A. Filename: bts_NTAD_FRA_Districts_DMP_20250609.pdf Short description: A PDF file containing the Data Management Plan that was created for current and future management of the data and associated files. B. Filename: bts_NTAD_FRA_Districts_README_20250609.txt Short description: The README.txt file that includes human-readable information about the data, variable definitions, contact information, and other contextual information. The file you are reading now. C. File List for the DOT_FRA_Districts_NTAD2022_Present.zip collection. Ca 1. Filename: NTADXXXX_GDB_Final_DOT_FRA_Districts_XXXX_XX_XX.gdb.zip (Folder) Short description: Compressed file folders containing the geospatial data for DOT Regions - Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Districts 2022-Present dataset. File folders are classified by NTAD publication year and data vintage year or date respectively. Geodatabase (GDB) folders contain all the necessary components to view and otherwise interact with their data. ---------------------------------------------------------------- D. METHODOLOGICAL INFORMATION ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Description of methods used for collection/generation of data: The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) District layer was created through a collaborative effort between the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and the Bureau and Transportation Statistics (BTS), ultimately being approved by a member of the FRA. BTS communicated with FRA personnel to help understand where the FRA Districts are located. As a result, the FRA created the district geographies using ArcGIS Pro, and sent them to BTS for publication. BTS then performed quality control checks on these data for consistency with FRA’s website, to check if each region incorporated the correct states, and also checked for gaps or slivers in the geographies. Next, BTS developed a database schema utilizing the “add field” function within ArcGIS Pro, and then added attribution to the districts deriving information from the FRA’s website https://railroads.dot.gov/railroad-safety/divisions/regional-offices/safety-management-teams, to fill out appropriate content with FRA’s guidance and ultimate approval. 2. Instrument- or software-specific information needed to interpret the data: File geodatabase data can only be opened with Esri ArcGIS. The documentation files can be opened with any basic text editor. ---------------------------------------------------------------- E. DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1. DOT Regions - Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Districts data table Due to the size of the data, it is not described in detail here. Review the data dictionary present in the data folders for information on the data table. A. Number of variables (columns): The data dictionary found in FRA_Offices.xlsx and FRA_Districts.xlsx provides definitions for the variables B. Data Dictionary/Variable List: Because of the large number of variables, please refer to the Data Dictionary found within the file FRA_Offices.xlsx and FRA_Districts.xlsx for names, definitions, and formats of variables. C. Missing data codes: None ---------------------------------------------------------------- F. UPDATE LOG ---------------------------------------------------------------- This bts_FRA_Districts_20250609_README.txt file was originally created on 2025-05-28 by Dominic Menegus, Geographer, dominic.menegus@dot.gov [Note changes or update to the readme.txt file, e.g.:] 2025-06-09: Original file created 2025-11-25: DOI added