The Federal Railroad Administration, Office of Safety, is seeking qualification statements from sources capable of providing mapping and routing software applications with the following functionalities: railroad network routing and mapping capabilities which allow various data files to be distributed and integrated as needed without license constraints and which do not require special technical software skills; client-server architecture with the application and pertinent data files residing on each user’s personal computer as well as the application routing engine and its railroad transportation database residing on a centralized server; a linking mechanism to the central railroad transportation database for data refresh and updates to the user’s local data via the Internet; export capability of route(s) and pertinent data to standard spreadsheet and word processing software for further analysis and reporting; application deployment which be may handled through an access-controlled web page where the client software is installed by download or CD and which serves as the user interface to the routing engine; the capability of utilizing shape data formats compatible with Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI) Map Objects; and seamless interface and integration with the National Transportation Atlas Database (NTAD) shapefile format (1:100,000 scale) as published yearly by the USDOT’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics. The user shall have the option of identifying origins and destinations by selecting locations from a list or from a display of the transportation network. Option settings used to determine routes shall be set using pull-down menus and tool buttons. Routes generated by the server shall be returned in both text and map format. The application shall be designed to allow the display and integration of other selected geographic databases, resident on the user’s PC, as additional layers. The application shall also contain the following line attributes: ownership, each line segment in the database identified by the rail system that owns the line either using the Association of American Railroad’s (AAR) three digit code or four-character alphabetic abbreviation; trackage rights, other railroads operating on each line which are clearly identified using either the AAR three-digit code or four character alphabetic abbreviation; interchange locations, all identified locations at which individual railroad companies exchange freight including the AAR code number or abbreviation for the pair of railroads exchanging freight at the location; length, the distance of each network segment which has an accuracy within 1/10 mi; traffic density, the volume of traffic handled on each segment of the network identified by multiple categories; node names, a unique number and location which identifies most nodes in the network; state code, a code which identifies each segment by the state where the segment is located; facility locations, all Department of Energy (DOE) sites, commercial nuclear power plants and research reactor sites with rail facilities; port access, access routes to commercial port facilities; weight clearance, maximum weight of a loaded railcar permitted on the segment; size clearance, maximum height and width of a loaded rail car permitted on the segment; signal system used on the segment; number of tracks along the segment; urban area, variable indicating whether the segment is within an urbanized area with a population exceeding 100,000 people; freight yard locations; crew change sites; inter-modal sites, locations of inter-modal freight transfers between rail and truck as well as between rail and waterway; and population data, population count and density data within corridors of .5, 1 and 5 miles on either side of each link. The applications shall also have the capability to determine the following: precise location where an event occurred; the facilities within a specified radius of an event; type of railroad traffic within a specified radius of an event; track geometry history and accident risk of a specified route; the routing pattern for a specified commodity; and the impact of routing around a specified urbanized area. Interested sources must submit a statement of qualifications including an outline of the approach that will be used to facilitate this requirement by 4:00 pm on Friday July 15, 2005. Qualification statements should be limited to twenty (20) pages including a brief description of past or present experience in supporting requirements similar in nature. Resumes for key personnel should be limited to 2 pages or less and will not be included in the twenty (20) page limit. Qualification statements should be submitted to the Federal Railroad Administration, Office of Acquisition and Grant Services, 1120 Vermont Avenue NW, Washington D.C. 20590, Mail Stop 50, POC: Rod Collins or e-mailed to
[email protected]. This request is unrestricted. All interested sources are encouraged to respond.