Bureau of Rail Freight Planning Section Purpose

	PennDOT Bureau of Rail Freight, Ports, and Waterways Planning Section

	The PennDOT Bureau of Rail Freight, Ports and Waterways Planning Section, or PS, is responsible for carrying out primary planning for the bureau’s two annual grant assistance programs, the Rail Freight Assistance Program and the Capital Budget Rail Transportation Assistance Program.
	The PS’s integral function is to develop grant program invesment strategies that reflect the programs’ authorized goals and objectives. These strategies are then incorporated into project evaluation criteria used to score candidate projects. With the bureau’s engineering section, the PS evaluates and scores each candidate project based on specific criteria.
	In addition, the PS maintains the bureau’s Pennsylvania railroads system map, which is accessible on the bureau’s Web site for public access. The section then makes necessary map updates based on U.S. Department of Transportation Surface Transportation Board actions and railroad industry news sources.
	The section also selects and completes targeted studies to support bureau grant programs or those relevant to the Commonwealth’s freight railroad industry.
	Planning personnel function as PennDOT’s representatives in local, regional and national forums and studies for issues relevant to Pennsylvania’s rail freight industry. They also participate in outreach between PennDOT and freight railroads, industry organizations, the rail shipper community, Metropolitan and Rural Planning Organizations, and PennDOT’s Engineering Districts.