FRA launches new online public safety data website

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has finalized the transition to a new, more user-friendly online public safety data website as required by Section 22405 of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.   

FRA established a site redesign group, including stakeholders from FRA, railroads, industry associations, state departments of transportation and researchers, to gather user requirements and test for functionality and suitability. The new site replaces two older legacy websites, one of which dates back decades.  

FRA’s previous Office of Safety Analysis website was developed in the 1990s and contained approximately 30 pre-made reports, with limited ability for users to customize their queries. Results were displayed in static tables. 

FRA notes the new public site incorporates those 30 reports and more into an interactive website that tells a story about the data. The new website includes a combination of data tables, visuals and narrative components.  

Users can select exactly the data they need through  controls like dropdown filters and parameters and then adjust how the reports display results. 

FRA says it will continually update the site in 2025 and beyond, incorporating feedback received from stakeholders. 

“Our new public FRA Safety Data website increases transparency, which is a Trump Administration priority,” said FRA Acting Administrator Drew Feeley. “The new capabilities being introduced will afford users significantly more flexibility when querying our railroad safety data.” 

According to the FRA, users will also experience an improved site navigation, including descriptive report titles and summaries to make it easier to find data, streamlined reports that reduce multiple tables to one table per report, expanded and standardized filter options across reports to help users find relevant data and more links to pages to help users navigate more quickly. It also includes numerous resource links, providing users with greater explanation of data queries. 

FRA says the collaborative modernization effort allows them to: 

• Enhance data assets by building new data assets while ensuring data users can find the data they already use and need. 
• Improve data accessibility by providing a user-friendly interface to view, filter and export data. 
• Promote data literacy by providing  data definitions and descriptions for easier data comprehension. 
• Enhance data dissemination by providing OData and API access, which enable a direct connection to the data that can automatically refresh and ensure up-to-date data, removing the need to manually export to access new data. 

FRA’s new public site aligns with the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Open Data Portal and contains a data catalog, which lists all available datasets and reports by agency or by topic.