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Summary

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has a critical and evolving role in the safety of the Nation’s rail transit systems. Under the State Safety Oversight (SSO) program created in 1991, FTA oversees the SSO agencies (SSOA) that monitor the safety of rail transit agencies. In 2012, we identified challenges and priority actions for FTA if the Agency was granted enhanced rail transit safety oversight and enforcement authority. Shortly thereafter, FTA’s safety authority increased under the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act, which allows FTA to assume SSO responsibilities in the absence of an effective SSOA. In addition, in October 2015, the Secretary of Transportation determined that FTA would assume safety oversight for Metrorail until Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia establish a fully functioning and capable SSOA. Given the challenges identified by our previous work, we are initiating an audit of FTA’s enhanced safety oversight role. Our audit objective is to assess FTA’s actions to assume and relinquish direct safety oversight of a transit agency.