TRA provides on site transit safety inspections

TRA State Safety Oversight Services

TRA’s team of public transit experts provides state safety oversight consulting to 16 U.S. jurisdictions and their rail transit agencies.

TRA helps state safety oversight agencies ensure compliance with Federal Transit Administration (FTA) requirements (including 49 CFR Part 674), but more importantly, we help both oversight and rail transit agencies take programmatic approaches to increasing the safety of subway, metro, light rail, automated rail, streetcar, and inclined plane systems.

TRA has been at the forefront of state safety oversight (or SSO) since 1990 – seven years prior to the first FTA requirement. Before the first Federal requirement in 1997, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, California, and Florida had state-specific requirements for transit safety oversight programs. TRA helped Pennsylvania to formulate, operate, and administer its program, which later become the model for many aspects of the FTA’s own requirements.

At present, we provide state safety oversight consulting services to:

1. Florida (as part of multiple consulting projects covering oversight of rail transit, bus transit, and automated peoplemovers)
2. Georgia
3. Hawaii
4. Maryland
5. Michigan
6. Minnesota
7. Missouri
8. Oregon
9. Pennsylvania
10. Texas
11. Utah
12. Virginia
13. Washington DC Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services (overseeing the DC Streetcar)
14. Washington Metrorail Safety Commission
15. West Virginia
16. Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, which runs a voluntary program, not subject to FTA requirements, for its EWR and JFK AirTrain systems

TRA’s Pragmatic Approach to Oversight

While we recognize that safety oversight work requires a somewhat specialized approach and independence from the rail transit agencies being overseen, TRA does strive to maintain a professional, constructive, and positive relationship with the public transit agencies it works with. We have found it to be far more effective to work cooperatively with transit agencies where possible and to avoid unnecessary gotcha interactions.

We also believe that our team of public transit practitioners – people who have worked in oversight projects, directly for transit agencies, and in consulting assignments for those agencies – provides the most practical and pragmatic results in our oversight projects.

SSO Tasks and Services We Provide

Depending on client needs, TRA can provide a broad spectrum of support services to state and oversight clients, including

• Formulating and startup of new state safety oversight programs and ensuring compliance with FTA requirements including 49 CFR Parts 671, 672, 673, and 674
• Planning and orchestrating key SSO program elements, including program standards and procedures, risk-based inspection programs, investigation procedures, technical training plans, and state personnel training programs
• Executing key SSO program elements including reviewing and approving key transit agency safety plans and other programmatic elements, conducting triennial (or ongoing) safety audits, conducting safety event (accident) and hazard investigations, and assessing transit agency corrective action plans
• Coordinating between the SSO client and the FTA for FTA audits, annual and periodic reporting, and as-needed technical inputs
• Conducting assessments of new project safety and security certification and completing pre-passenger service safety assessments
• Providing technical experts in safety, security, emergency preparedness, operations, maintenance, engineering, and other key disciplines

How can we help your agency improve rail transit safety? Reach out to us at TRA, we would be happy to discuss with you.