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Acknowledgments US Department of Transportation - BTS

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agencies receiving funds through the Urbanized Area Formula Program are generally required to report financial andoperating data, including vehicle inventories and directly operated mileage. Transit operators that do not report toFTA are those that do not receive Urbanized Area Formula Funding, typically private, small, and rural operators. Thedata are generally considered accurate because FTA reviews and validates information submitted by individual transitagencies. Reliability may vary because some transit agencies cannot obtain accurate information or may misinterpretcertain data definitions.Navigable ChannelsThese statistics originate from a mid-1950s U.S. Army Corps <strong>of</strong> Engineers (<strong>US</strong>ACE) estimate that there wereapproximately 25,000 miles <strong>of</strong> commercially important navigable channels in the United States. That number hasbeen adjusted from time to time, for example, by addition <strong>of</strong> the 234-mile Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway in theearly 1980s. The 25,000 plus mile number has been universally quoted for decades, but has definitional andmethodological uncertainties. <strong>US</strong>ACE is currently developing a rigorous, Global Information System (GIS)-basedapproach to facilitate tabulation <strong>of</strong> the lengths <strong>of</strong> shallow and deep-draft commercially navigable waterways in theUnited States; this calculation will be available in several years.Oil PipelineThe data are from <strong>Transportation</strong> in America, published by the Eno <strong>Transportation</strong> Foundation, Inc. (Eno). Thenumbers reprinted here for 1960, 1965, 1970, and 1975 are Eno estimates from the U.S. <strong>Department</strong> <strong>of</strong> Energy(DOE) Energy Data Report issues labeled "Crude-oil and Refined Products Mileage in the United States." Enoestimated the 1980 number based on the assumption that refinement <strong>of</strong> old, less pr<strong>of</strong>itable, and smaller linesexceeded in mileage the construction <strong>of</strong> new, larger, and more pr<strong>of</strong>itable lines. Post-1985 data were calculated usinga base figure reported in a 1982 <strong>US</strong>DOT study entitled Liquid Pipeline Director and then combined with data from theAssociation <strong>of</strong> Oil Pipe Lines and the Oil Pipeline Research Institute. Lack <strong>of</strong> additional information raises definitionaland methodological uncertainties for the data's reliability. Moreover, the three different information sources introducedata discontinuities, making time comparisons unreliable.Gas PipelineThese statistics originate from annual editions <strong>of</strong> Gas Facts, published by the American Gas Association (AGA). Thedata reported by the AGA are based on gas utilities participation and reporting to the Uniform Statistical Report.Utilities reporting represented 98 percent <strong>of</strong> gas utility industry sales while the remaining 2 percent was estimated fornonreporting companies based on recent historical experience. Varying percentages <strong>of</strong> nonreporters from year toyear introduce minor reliability problems for time-series comparisons.TABLE 1-2. Number <strong>of</strong> Air Carriers, Railroads, Interstate Motor Carriers, Marine Operators, and PipelineOperatorsAir CarriersThe data are from the Air Carrier Financial Statistics Quarterly, published by the Office <strong>of</strong> Airline Information <strong>of</strong> theU.S. <strong>Department</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Transportation</strong>, Bureau <strong>of</strong> <strong>Transportation</strong> Statistics (<strong>BTS</strong>). The Alphabetical List <strong>of</strong> Air Carriers byCarrier Group at the beginning <strong>of</strong> each fourth quarter edition is used to determine the number <strong>of</strong> major air carriersand other air carriers in operation at the end <strong>of</strong> each calendar year. The publication draws its data from the T-100 andT-100(f) databases maintained by <strong>BTS</strong>. These databases include data obtained from a 100-percent census <strong>of</strong> <strong>BTS</strong>Form 41 schedule submissions by large certificated air carriers, which are carriers that hold a certificate issued undersection 401 <strong>of</strong> the Federal Aviation Act <strong>of</strong> 1958 and that (1) operate aircraft designed to have a maximum passengerseating capacity <strong>of</strong> more than 60 seats or a maximum payload capacity <strong>of</strong> more than 18,000 pounds or (2) thatconduct international operations. Carriers are grouped as major, national, large regional, or medium regional basedon their annual operating revenues. The thresholds were last adjusted July 1, 1999 and the threshold for major aircarriers is currently $1 billion. The table combines the number <strong>of</strong> national, large regional, and medium regional aircarriers into the other air carrier category.Railroads

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