On March 3, TRA Vice President Dan Hauber and Project Analyst Charles Lindrooth traveled to Martinsburg, West Virginia to conduct several training sessions for the Eastern Panhandle Transit Authority (EPTA) to familiarize them with their new Public Transit Agency Safety Plan (PTASP) and Safety Management System (SMS) concepts generally.

The team said that working with EPTA was a great experience. “Employees were genuinely interested in turning their history of safety practices into a formalized culture of safety,” according to Charles. “EPTA was doing all of the right things, and the structure of the PTASP will help them do those things in a more organized and efficient manner.” The project was a great opportunity for both parties to learn more about not only safety culture but also about the versatility of the PTASP. As Dan put it, “It really shows how the PTASP can scale to fit each transit agency’s size and operations.” The team had several discussions about how more detail can be included in the PTASPs of smaller transit agencies. This can be beneficial because it does not require the agency to maintain as many documents, and it does not require employees to refer to as many sources.

The TRA team values their experience in Martinsburg and are looking forward to future training sessions with Huntington and Parkersburg in the near future.