FRA R&D program managers possess the technical skills necessary to oversee the many research contracts that are aimed at the overall goal of reducing the rate of rail-related crashes, injuries and fatalities in the United States. Prior to contracts being let, R&D employees must have had an understanding of the research needs in all areas of railroad safety and technology and they must have had the ability to translate those needs into comprehensive documents upon which research programs can be based.
R&D program managers possess technical skills sufficient to review, comprehend, and interpret technical reports and papers presented at technical forums such as at the TRB, AREMA, AAR, APTA, and others.
R&D program managers oversee testing at the TTC, where testing is conducted on a wide variety of railroad rolling stock and track components. This requires a keen understanding of testing methodology, application, and ramifications. Skills also required for the overseeing of this facility include understanding property management, dealing with state and local community groups, as well as the full range of engineering skills.
Skills associated with the handling of hazardous materials are required of R&D program managers. Understanding the impact of the railroad environment to the tank cars-the pulling and compressing on cars during starting and stopping, the terrain of the area, etc.-all impact the movement of hazardous materials.
In addition to researching and understanding the inanimate aspects of railroad safety, R&D program managers must understand how human factors impact safety. Research projects that cover such topics as grade crossing driver behavior, grade crossing accident causation, dispatcher workload stress and fatigue, yard and terminal safety, digital communications research, cab ergonomics, and many others are overseen by R&D staff. Industrial psychology skills are required, as are program management and evaluation skills; process analysis skills; and the like.
In addition to the technical skills required, R&D program managers must also possess communication skills, contract management skills, and leadership skills. Often an R&D staff member will be the only representative of FRA attending a national or international conference. It is not enough for these individuals to know their technical subject area. They must also know how to communicate that knowledge in a politically sensitive manner with an eye to creating mutually beneficial partnerships with diverse members of the railroad industry. Because so much of the workload of R&D staff is the management of outside contracts, they must be expert managers, as well as, evaluators of the specific technical tasks to be accomplished by the contract. And they must possess leadership skills because as the railroads themselves reduce the amount of R&D work being done, FRA is expected to fill the void and to serve as the leader.
R&D program managers believe that their workload will increase over the next five years. With the extraction of other parties away from the R&D effort, the responsibility will increasingly fall to FRA's Office of R & D. Tolerance for railroad accidents continues to decrease, causing the demand for stricter safety standards, and the research and testing necessary to create them, to increase.
Additionally, the R&D program managers cite the increasing demands of technological changes as having a major impact on the type of work that will be added in the next five years. All current employees constantly must keep abreast of these changes-changes in Intelligent Transportation Systems, changes in how the Internet can facilitate information dissemination, and changes in ways of doing business. These are things that companies in the private sector are pursuing with a competitive vengeance and that the FRA must match. Technology, information, and computers have not eased the workload of R&D. Rather, they have greatly opened the door of what needs to be researched and have increased the expectation that the new areas will be researched.
A long-term goal of the office is to have at least two research program managers in each of the ten program areas-one senior and one junior-and three additional administrative support persons to enable it to increase its output and disseminate the results to its various customers.
No staff member could identify skills that no longer will be required. Continual upgrading of the following skills must occur: systems analysis, systems engineering, transportation (railroad) planning, statistical analysis, operations research, economics, and program management.
Additional skills and skills enhancements must also occur in the areas of: telecommunications (both analog and digital); new types of radioactive materials, spent fuels, and newly created toxic and poisonous materials; smart transportation-related computer programs and research; process management and program evaluation; reliability engineering; new and upgraded computer programs, and all forms of electronic information management.
The Office of R&D currently has the most diverse workforce in FRA and one of the most diverse workforces in the Federal government. No difficulty is expected in retaining the level of diversity because of the diversity that exists now in most graduate schools of engineering.
New strategies must be developed and implemented to attract new employees with the skill mix necessary to continue the mission of the agency. Since FRA is competing with a private sector market that can pay more than is currently being paid by FRA, the challenge to devise a creative competitive pay plan is critical. Constraints on hiring could impede the hiring of greatly needed workers. More flexibility is needed also to provide incentives for highly skilled employees to remain with the Office of R&D. Repeatedly, employment research has suggested that it costs far less to retain an excellent employee through the use of certain incentives than it does to incur the cost of repeatedly rehiring and retraining new employees.
Professional Capacity Building
The NSTC's National Transportation Science and Technology Strategy and the Department of Transportation Strategic Plan identify the need to undertake transportation education and training to attract and maintain an educated workforce. FRA proposes initiatives to build professional capacity in response to that goal. The Federal Government has an appropriate and vital interest in assisting railroads to improve safety and improve performance, and professional capacity building is a means to those ends.
New digital communication technologies, information technologies, satellite positioning technologies, and sensor and telemetry technologies offer the potential to create Intelligent Railroad Systems, described in Chapter 3, which will radically improve the safety and efficiency of freight, intercity passenger, and commuter railroads. However, unless FRA's staff and managers, along with the management and employees of railroads, railroad suppliers, and State and local governments are educated and trained in these technologies, these technologies simply will not be implemented on railroads and their benefits will be lost. Planners must be also be educated in these Intelligent Railroad Systems technologies as well as high-speed rail and magnetic levitation technologies if these systems are to be implemented. In the short term, the focus of activities in this area will be training and re-training of FRA staff.
FRA intends to consult with the AAR, ASLRRA, APTA, Amtrak, and railroad unions to conduct an analysis of the needs for education and training in these technologies in the coming year, and in subsequent year's curriculum development and actual training could occur. This program would be based on the professional capacity building programs being undertaken by the ITS Joint Program Office and the FTA, which are now in their sixth year, and would use the staff of those programs, perhaps with augmentation, to carry out the needs analysis. It is possible that, in subsequent years, the staff of the Federal Highway Institute, which administers the ITS and FTA professional capacity building programs, could also carry out the education and training activities for FRA.