06 Statement of Work.pdf

U.S. Department of Transportation

Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA)

Transportation Management System Consist Integration

Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA)

Statement of Work

Transportation Management System Consist Integration

U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) 693JK320Q0008 Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) Attachment 1

1. Background

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) wants to ensure that train commodity and consist data are readily available to first responders. A consist provides a description of the train and the order of locomotives, cars, and end of train (EOT) devices as well as the content of those cars.

During an incident that occurred in Anding, Mississippi in 2005, first responders were unable to determine the hazardous materials on either of the trains because consist information was destroyed during the head-on collision, which delayed the appropriate response by hours as there was some confusion that copies of the consist, for the southbound train, did not match the derailed cars. In the National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) report1, one of the safety recommendations was to require real-time information regarding the identity and location of all hazardous materials on a train.

Current legislation, Section 7302 of the FAST Act, requires real-time information only for Class I railroads transporting hazardous materials. Providing first responders access to real-time information from Class I, II, and III railroads will promote PHMSA’s overall mission of safety in the transportation of hazardous materials. While the consist and the placards on the train are still the primary source of information and the railroad is the secondary source, AskRail serves as a digital resource for this information for a first responder if the information on the train is unavailable.

AskRail is an application that provides more than 23,000 first responders with immediate access to accurate, timely data about what type of hazardous materials a railcar is carrying as well as Emergency Response Guidebook (ERG) references so that first responders can make an informed decision about how to respond to a rail emergency. AskRail serves emergency responders who arrive first to the scene of a rail emergency who need to identify the type and location of each hazardous material for each railcar. Through a mobile interface, emergency responders can query the contents of a railcar with a simple railcar ID search to see if a car is carrying hazardous material and, if so, what that material is.

AskRail obtains data about what’s on a railcar through two data sources - waybills and consists. A waybill is a document showing the origin, destination, route, origin party, receiver, a description of the equipment and commodity, as well as the amount charged for the transportation service, all identified by a unique number and date combination. When a shipper works with a railroad to move a commodity, identified using the Standard Transportation Commodity Code (STCC), the railroad must generate a waybill showing the details of the commodities being transported and where they are moving. Notably, one train could be carrying multiple commodities for multiple carriers therefore having more than one waybill. Railinc receives waybill data from all interline and many local waybills.

Interline waybills are shipments between two railroads and local waybills are shipments over a single railroad. While all railroads are required to send interline waybills, they are not required to send local waybills. AskRail uses waybill data to provide access to a single car lookup, showing a first responder what is on any searched car when the waybill data is provided to Railinc.

1 National Transportation Safety Board Safety Recommendation. (2007, April 25). <https://www.ntsb.gov/safety/safety-recs/recletters/R07_4_5.pdf>

To provide information on what is in a single car, AskRail uses waybill data to display the type of car, equipment owner contact information, material contents of the car, and if hazardous, the Emergency Response Guide (ERG) on how to handle the material. A first responder types in the equipment ID of a car, which is made up of four alpha characters followed by 1-10 numeric characters and is physically printed (stenciled) on the equipment. AskRail checks the waybill database for the equipment ID and returns the waybill information (equipment type, type and quantity of commodity, owner information). If the commodity is hazardous, the hazardous materials information is also displayed (classification, packing group, UN/NA number, reference placard, railroad emergency contact). Selecting either the UN/NA number or placard will provide an option to the user to view the ERG or calculate an isolation zone and displays the isolation zone on a map based on the location of the device making the search. The waybill information is then used to search for the consist containing that waybill.

AskRail uses consist data to show first responders the full train. After the first responder has typed in an equipment ID and has seen the details on a single car search, if the car is in a train, they can click a "view train" button which will show them the details of the entire train. By having access to consist data, first responders can understand what materials present risk, what possible reactions could occur between multiple commodities, and where on the train the risk exists.

Many non-Class I railroads, referred to as short lines, use Wabtec applications to generate their consist data. This project proposal is to integrate short line consist data into the AskRail application.

First responders can see the details of the equipment searched when the train is from a Class 1 but if the train is not a Class 1, the responder would have to search each car individually to review the entire train. Integrating Wabtec consist data with AskRail would fill in the consist data for most short lines.

The Transportation Management System (TMS) is an application which allows short lines to structure a train's order of cars in the form of a consist and shares this data with all carrier's in the route. The TMS data can be provided in Extensible Markup Language, or XML format. XML allows information to be formatted using tags, i.e. labels, along with sender and receiver information. The tags create a standard format for the information so that an application or webservice that receives the XML formatted data can be programmed to read the information, often referred to as consuming the information since it is altered and presented in a different way.

Railinc currently consumes similar XML data from other carriers. This project is for Wabtec to send the XML formatted consist generated from their TMS to Railinc, and for Railinc to pivot that data to be consumable by the AskRail application.

AskRail has required tags to construct the consist information in a usable format and optional tags that allows the app to connect the waybill data, including the date the waybill was created, the unique number assigned by the railroad, the railroad that creates the waybill, the STCC, the hazardous material classification which designates the type of hazard, the UN/NA number, and the packing group which determines how the material is packed.

This project consists of two main components. Wabtec will be updating their system to send their existing XML messages to Railinc. Railinc will create a process to consume the XML consist data and attach identifying fields (e.g. company ID, consist timestamp). Then, Railinc will receive the XML format from Wabtec, and Railinc will input the XML data into the Railinc consist service to be read by AskRail. At the completion of this project, short line operators will continue to use TMS from Wabtec, but the information will automatically be sent to AskRail for availability for emergency responders.

2. Tasks and Scope

Short line consist data will be made available to first responders through the AskRail application by way of integrating the TMS. The major tasks and deliverables are outlined below.

Task 1 – Kickoff Meeting, Management Plan, and Progress Reports Kickoff meeting, provide all team members with specific managerial, technical, and contractual information relevant to the project. Presented at this meeting, detailed requirements to develop an accurate Project Management Plan in a timely manner with all aspects of the project addressed to ensure an effective project path to success.

Deliverables: Project management plan, project schedule, kick off meeting agenda and minutes.

Monthly progress reports are required on the 10th day of the month and must describe progress made toward each assigned deliverable; they must also identify potential “trouble areas” for the future. The Contractor must deliver the monthly progress reports electronically to the COR and the Contracting Officer.

Task 2 – TMS Data Submission to AskRail During Task 2, the contractor will update outgoing data to a common XML format and will do all the preparation work to automatically send an XML message once a train has been created in the TMS system. The contractor will send a sample XML schema, which describes constraints on how the document is created and what can be included in the document. The contractor will also gather and provide an estimate for the volume of consist messages expected to be delivered daily in production.

Deliverable: Report to DoT/PHMSA on data submission showing payload, schema, and projected volume from the TMS system.

Task 3 – Add Additional Data Required For Consist Services During Task 3, the contractor will append the five required fields that do not currently exist in TMS (including fields like company ID and consist timestamp). The contractor will translate the request for consist train data so the request can be integrated and called by the consist service.

Deliverables: Report to DoT/PHMSA showing both the new payload generated by the contractor including the additional fields as well as showing the successful receipt of generated test messages by consist service through database audit table(s). Virtual meeting to be provided for DoT/PHMSA member to optionally observe data transmission.

Task 4 – Creation of Service to Consume TMS Consist During Task 4, the contractor will set up a message channel (such as File Transfer Protocol) to integrate with TMS in AskRail’s pre-production environment. A short line consist data service will be developed that will read from TMS’ messages. AskRail will consume TMS messages, append the fields per Task 3, and will then translate the request for consist services so that the request can be integrated and called by AskRail. The contractor will also add validation to ensure that messages have not been corrupted.

Deliverables: Report to DoT/PHMSA showing message sent by TMS and timestamp received by AskRail. Separately show the successful receipt of TMS generated test messages by consist service through database audit table. Virtual meeting to be provided for DoT/PHMSA member to optionally observe data transmission.

Task 5 – Creation of Database Storage And Purge Policies During Task 5, the contractor will create new database tables to store the consist data from TMS which will provide faster response times for multiple queries on the same equipment and aid in troubleshooting customer requests. These tables will have a purge policy enabled that would clean up data older than a specific amount of time. The purge policy will apply to other consist data.

Deliverables: A report to DoT/PHMSA on the creation of database tables through database audit report and demonstration of purge policy script results.

Task 6 – Initial Deployment During Task 6, the contractor will test consist services in AskRail’s pre-production environment. To test AskRail, the consist data must match data found for equipment, movement of the equipment, waybill data, hazmat and commodity data. To create a test consist, production data can be recreated in the pre-production environment. The contractor will complete acceptance testing of the AskRail application once a valid data scenario exists. The contractor will test consist delivery by sending a production volume level amount of data in the pre-production environment. The contractor will validate incoming consist data is being received and stored within the database and further test that this consist data can be combined with waybill and event data and be successfully consumed by the AskRail application. The message integration with TMS, the new short line consist service, database tables, database purge policies, and any code or service related changes will be deployed to production internally. The contractor will then validate the consist services and AskRail application in production.

Deliverable: A report to DoT/PHMSA showing receipt of payload from TMS and results returned in AskRail. An optional demonstration of data transfer (virtually or in person) to DoT/PHMSA personnel.

Task 7 – Systems Validation During Task 7, the contractor will switch the message pattern so they can be made available in the AskRail application. The contractor will monitor one year’s worth of messages (30,000 expected) after initial deployment during the validation stage. During this task the contractor will be monitoring the receipt of the messages, validating that they are being made available to the AskRail system, and ensuring that they can be consumed. The contractor will also monitor the production scale of the messages and make the necessary adjustments to the system.

Deliverable: A report to DoT/PHMSA showing the total messages sent by the TMS and the results.

An optional demonstration of data transfer (virtually or in person) to DoT/PHMSA personnel.

3. Deliverables

Task Deliverables Delivery

1 Kickoff Meeting, Management Plan, and Monthly Progress Reports

Kickoff Meeting scheduled within two weeks after effective date. Progress reports are due on a monthly basis.

Data submission report on payload, schema, and projected new message volume from TMS as well as preparation of TMS for XML transmission to AskRail

Within 4 Months after award effective date

Report showing

a. Payload with additional fields generated by

AskRail

b. Successful receipt of AskRail generated test messages by consist service through database audit table.

Within 8 Months after award effective date

Report showing

a. Message delivery from TMS and message receipt with timestamp by AskRail

b. Successful receipt of TMS generated test messages by consist service through database audit table.

Within 8 Months after award effective date

Report showing

a. Database table creation through database audit report

b. Purge policy script results*

Within 9 Months after award effective date

6 Demonstration of payload sent from TMS and results returned in AskRail

Within 10 Months after award effective date

7 Report showing a year’s worth of messages transferred

Within 22 Months after award effective date

4. Glossary

AskRail - A mobile application provided to first responders for information on how to handle incidents involving railroads and hazardous materials.

Association of American Railroads (AAR) - The central coordinating and research agency of the North American rail industry. It deals with matters of common concern to member roads; operations, hardware standardization, regulatory matters research, safety, forecasts, finance, etc. It is dedicated to the standardization of processes and progress of the rail transportation industry.

Class I Railroad - Annual operating revenue of $447,621,226 or more

Class II Railroad - Annual operating revenue of Less than $447,621,226 but in excess of $35,809,698

Class III Railroad - Annual operating revenue of $35,809,698 or less

Commodity - Article of commerce (lading). Goods being shipped.

Consignee - The party to whom articles are shipped.

Consist - Computer-generated document kept at point of origin and advanced to next consisting point listing the train makeup in standing order, the number of passenger and freight cars, commodities, and a summary of the train including tonnage and train length.

Constraints - often called facets, include rules such as minimum and maximum length of a field (e.g.

the STCC tag must be 7 numerical characters).

Consume - using or absorbing; the application consumes the data from the backend to display on the front end.

Destination - The location to which a shipment is consigned.

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) - Electronic data interchange, either with computers, FAX machines or telephones. Used to make and trace car orders, issue bills of lading, electronic payment transfer, etc.

Emergency Response Guide (ERG) - The Emergency Response Guidebook provides first responders with a go-to manual to help deal with hazmat transportation accidents.

End of Train (EOT) device - A portable sensory transmitter unit mounted on the last car of a train that transmits information to a receiver display unit on the engine.

Equipment ID - Identifying information stenciled on transportation equipment, comprised of the Equipment Initial and the Equipment Number.

Equipment Initial - An identification number comprised of initials 2-4 alpha characters long, which indicate the ownership of the car, and a number, which specifies the type of car.

Equipment Number - An identification number comprised of up to 10 numbers, which indicate the ownership of the car, and a number, which specifies the type of car.

Equipment Owner - A term which refers to the party to which a car belongs. Possible types of car ownership are CSX owned, CSX leased, private, and foreign.

Extensible Markup Language (XML) - XML is a software- and hardware-independent tool for storing and transporting data.

FAST Act - The Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act or "FAST Act". More info here:

https://www.transportation.gov/fastact

Hazardous Materials (Hazmat) - A substance or material, which is capable of posing an unreasonable risk to health, safety, property, and the environment.

Hazmat Classification - Every hazardous material is assigned to one of nine hazard classes as defined in 49 CFR 172.101 and 173.

Interline - Traffic that moves between two or more carriers.

Interline Waybill - A waybill covering the movement of freight over two or more transportation carriers' tracks.

Isolation zone - The initial isolation zone is the area that the public must be evacuated from and not be permitted to enter (except response personnel with appropriate personal protective equipment).

Local - Shipments which originate and terminate on a single railroad's tracks and involve no other railroad.

Local Waybill - A waybill covering the movement of freight over a single railroad.

Locomotive - A self-propelled unit of equipment, or combination of units operated under a single control, and designed solely for moving other equipment.

Message Queue (MQ) - a product that allows applications to communicate with each other using messages made up of binary characters.

National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) - The National Transportation Safety Board is an independent Federal agency charged by Congress with investigating every civil aviation accident in the United States and significant accidents in other modes of transportation – railroad, highway, marine and pipeline.

Origin - The location at which a shipment begins.

Packing group - A packing group denotes the relative danger of the material. The lower the group number the higher the hazard and the stricter the packing requirements. Not all classes are broken into packing groups.

Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) - The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration is a United States Department of Transportation agency responsible for developing and enforcing regulations for the safe, reliable, and environmentally sound operation of hazardous materials in commerce.

Railinc – Provider of rail data and messaging services to the North American freight railway industry.

Reference Placard - Paper forms of various designs used to identify cars requiring special attention (i.e. Dangerous and Explosive).

Route - Noun: The course or direction that a shipment moves. Verb: To designate the course or direction a shipment will move.

Shipper - (AKA Consignor) The person or firm by whom articles are shipped.

Short Line Railroad - A transportation line operating over a small territory. Class II and Class III railroads are frequently referred to as short line railroads.

Standard Transportation Commodity Code (STCC) - Seven-digit code designed to classify all commodities

Surface Transportation Board (STB) - The STB is an economic regulatory agency that Congress charged with the fundamental missions of resolving railroad rate and service disputes and reviewing proposed railroad mergers.

Transportation Data Coordinating Committee (TDCC) - A committee which has established EDI standards for the rail industry.

UN/NA number - United Nations (UN) numbers are four-digit numbers used to identify hazardous chemicals or classes of hazardous materials worldwide. North American (NA) numbers are identical to UN numbers. If a material does not have a UN number, it may be assigned an NA number.

Wabtec - Wabtec Corporation is a supplier of technology-based products and services for freight rail, passenger transit and select industrial markets worldwide.

Waybills - Passenger transit and select industrial markets worldwide.

Webservice - A web service is any piece of software that makes itself available over the internet and uses a standardized XML messaging system.

XML tag - An XML element denoted by angle brackets (<>). As a simple example, <b> is the start tag for Bold font, while </b> is the end tag for bold font.