Skip to main content

Foxx proposes new rule to increase safety of rail transit systems

At the end of his four-day Grow America tour, US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx announced a proposed rule to increase oversight responsibilities of State Safety Oversight Agencies (SSOAs) by replacing the existing outdated regulatory framework with one designed to better evaluate the effectiveness of a rail transit agency’s system safety program. The proposed rule, issued by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), would give states more resources to increase oversight over rail transit systems. It
February 24, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
At the end of his four-day Grow America tour, US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx announced a proposed rule to increase oversight responsibilities of State Safety Oversight Agencies (SSOAs) by replacing the existing outdated regulatory framework with one designed to better evaluate the effectiveness of a rail transit agency’s system safety program.  

The proposed rule, issued by the 2023 Federal Transit Administration (FTA), would give states more resources to increase oversight over rail transit systems. It would require adoption and enforcement of federal and state safety laws and require SSOAs to be financially and legally independent of the rail transit systems they oversee.

“We must improve, modernise and transform rail transit safety oversight to provide the increased level of safety expected by the millions of passengers who use rail transit every day,” said Foxx. “Rail transit is a safe travel option, but we have an obligation and opportunity to make it even safer.”

 “FTA appreciates the continued cooperation and engagement of our state and rail transit industry partners as we take this major step forward toward a new safety regulatory framework,” said FTA acting administrator Therese McMillan. “We drafted the proposed rule to ensure it allows for the flexibility and scalability needed to provide effective safety benefits for passengers and employees of transit agencies of all sizes and operating environments.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • The twisting path to enforcement’s future
    June 5, 2014
    Survey reveals some division of views about enforcement’s future as Colin Sowman discovers. Technological advances and legislative changes pose many questions for those involved in road enforcement, ranging from the changing demands of privacy and data protection legislation to the practicalities on multi-speed enforcement. So to get the industry’s views ITS International took soundings on some of these bigger questions. In a world where many vehicles are fitted with GPS linked ‘black box’ telematics system
  • USDOT Smart City Challenge explained
    June 3, 2016
    Mark Dowd, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology, US Department of Transportation, will join keynote speaker Frank DiGiammarino of Amazon Web Services (AWS) on stage at 2:00pm on Wednesday, June 15 in Grand Ballroom 220A of McEnery Convention Centre to close out ITS America 2016 San Jose.
  • Dignity should be key measure of MaaS success
    December 4, 2020
    Money isn’t everything: what if we made dignity into the key measure of success for MaaS? Crissy Ditmore sets out her vision statement for the industry’s developers
  • Commercial vehicle cross-border enforcement needs muscle
    February 3, 2012
    A look at the current status of cross-border enforcement of commercial vehicle operation in the European Union and a look at what still needs to happen to realise a coherent working system