Limited Competition of the Federal Railroad Administration Risk Reduction Program/Broad Agency Announcement

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) intends to award a Broad Agency Announcement that will utilize other than full and open competition procedures and limit responses to only Class I Railroad carrier companies. The purpose of this effort is to initiate a Risk Reduction Program (RRP) which is an FRA-led industry-wide initiative to reduce accidents and injuries, and build strong safety cultures, by developing innovative methods, processes, and technologies to identify and correct individual and systemic contributing factors using “upstream” predictive data. The Class I carriers include the following railroads: BNSF Railway Company, Fort Worth, Texas CSX Transportation, Jacksonville, Florida Canadian National Railway, Montreal, Quebec Canadian Pacific Railway, Calgary, Alberta Kansas City Southern, Kansas City, Missouri Norfolk Southern Railway, Norfolk, Virginia Union Pacific Railroad, Omaha, Nebraska Limiting competition will help the RRP develop for various reasons. Due to the RRP being in the very early stages, the FRA wants to conduct a limited competition to Class I Railroads that will focus on potential pilot programs already being developed by these carriers. The Class I carriers are, in many instances, already working to develop proactive safety programs. Selecting from their ranks will mean that the first Risk Reduction pilot projects will likely be more developmentally mature than might be the case if FRA were to select from an organization that was still trying to learn the basic concepts behind proactive risk reduction. In addition, the Class I carriers are by their natures very large and complex operations, which may enable development of pilot programs that include larger geographic territories, more employees, or greater complexity. Pilot projects that include both of the benefits described, i.e. greater developmental advancement as well as larger pilot sites, may speed the development of results that can be used to shape the regulation required by the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008. Lastly, the FRA believes that the Class I carriers, if allowed to participate in the RRP, will be well situated (in terms of staff, revenue, and experience) to provide advice and assistance to smaller entities that may subsequently join the program. This requirement is being advertised as Other Than Full and Open Competition under the authority of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 6, Subparts 6.301 and 6.302. The purpose of this notice is to satisfy the requirements of FAR Subpart 5.2. THIS IS A NOTICE OF INTENT ONLY. Therefore, no solicitation document is available at this time.