Answer:

Force account is the use of a grantee’s own labor force to carry out a capital project. Force account work may consist of design, construction, refurbishment, inspection, and construction management activities, if eligible for reimbursement under the grant. Incremental labor costs from flagging protection, service diversions, or other activities directly related to the capital grant may also be defined as force account work.Documentation can include a force account plan for the work accomplished or planned, or any other documentation that reflects that in-house labor forces were "budgeted" as of January 29th to accomplish the work.

Answer:

Yes. The concerns and needs of the Environmental Justice community should be considered at all stages of the cooperative, continuous, and comprehensive planning processes conducted at the statewide and metropolitan levels as well as project development. By the time project development begins, numerous systems-level decisions have already been made and it is important to consider the EJ population (if present in the geographic area) when making planning choices that lead to project outcomes.

Answer:

Yes. Applicants should include the customer impact of repair projects together with the customer impact from direct storm damage in the same section of the HMCE analysis. Please show how each estimated interruption is estimated and how the user impacts are calculated for each. If multiple types of customer impacts are included, please provide a separate analysis showing how each was calculated.

Answer:

Since a significant portion of the seriously damaged transit infrastructure was technologically obsolete, and hence not appropriate to replace in kind or restore to the exact previous condition, FTA will fund repair and replacement projects that bring transit assets up to a state of good repair.Specifically, when repairing or replacing facilities and infrastructure damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Sandy, the following activities are eligible for Emergency Relief funding: 1) replacement of older features with new ones; 2) incorporation of current design standards; 3) replacement of a destroyed facility at a different location when replacing at the existing location is not practical or feasible; and 4) additional required features resulting from the NEPA process. The incorporation of improvements or changes designed solely to improve the resiliency of transit infrastructure is not considered a state of good repair improvement under this eligibility. Further guidance on mitigation and resiliency improvements will be forthcoming.Rolling stock and other equipment used in public transportation that was damaged or destroyed before the end of its useful life may be replaced with new rolling stock and equipment.

Answer:

FTA will make determinations on a case-specific basis, which may require recipients to submit contract documents to FTA for review. Generally, costs that are incurred after January 29th, such as by amending a contract, exercising options on a contract for additional work, or ordering previously un-budgeted tasks on an indefinite quantity contract, would not qualify for category 2, and would need to comply with all federal requirements, or would need to seek a waiver of specific requirements through the FTA docket as described in the March 29, 2013 Notice of Allocation. The docket is available on www.regulations.gov, and the docket number for calendar year 2013 is FTA–2013–0001. However, issuing future task orders on an existing contract for which funds were already committed (such as for storm clean-up/debris removal work) may be eligible under Category 2.

Answer:

All Americans with Disabilities Act requirements apply to ER grants and all recovery and resilience projects must be ADA compliant, including “path of travel” requirements when rehabilitating passenger facilities. Applicants should coordinate with their FTA Regional Civil Rights Officer early in the grant development process to ensure all requirements are being met. Repair and rebuilding projects using ER funds should be designed to be compliant with ADA requirements.

Answer:

Transit operators are responsible for submitting and pursuing insurance claims for covered damages consistent with their policy and coverage. FTA’s allocations of ER funding are intended and designed to supplement a transit agency’s insurance coverage, and are subject to estimates of the amount of insurance proceeds an agency expects to receive, as well as the amounts eventually received under a claim. Each application for FTA ER funds requires that the applicant attach any insurance policies that may cover damage to the assets for which the applicant is requesting ER funding.

Answer:

Transit agencies can undertake a number of partnerships or contractual relationships with other mobility providers to provide additional mobility options to the public. Examples include mobility management; joint marketing; advertising; integration of schedules or travel information systems; linking to services from Internet sites; and integrated payment systems, etc.  
Additionally, the FTA encourages non-transit uses of transit agency property that can raise additional revenues or, at a reasonable cost, enhance ridership. Incidental uses may include permission for other transportation providers to use transit facilities or parking spaces, as long as such use does not conflict with the intended transit uses of the project property. The recipient must fully recapture all costs related to incidental use from the non-transit entity and any revenues received from incidental use must be used for public transportation purposes.

Answer:

Transit operators may realize savings from improved operations and maintenance efficiencies, among other benefits. For example, automated buses may reduce fuel consumption from optimized acceleration and deceleration or bus yard operations.  In addition, it is anticipated that transit bus automation will increase safety by reducing the severity and frequency of collisions, thereby reducing agencies’ liability and other collision-related costs.

New transit services, such as feeder, circulator, or late-night service, or operations in low density areas, may become cost effective, improving transit access for all users.

Answer:

• Greater access to funds is provided by:
  • Tapping a wider range of funding programs
  • Accessing a greater variety of staff and facilities
  • Employing more specialized and skilled staff
  • More cost-effective use of resources is created through:
  • Productivity increases
  • Economies of scale
  • Eliminating waste caused by duplicated efforts
  • More centralized planning and management of resources
• Greater productivities and efficiencies will:
  • Fill service gaps within communities by offering services to additional geographic areas and individuals within existing budgets.
  • Provide additional trips for community members, thus enhancing their quality of life.
  • Generate cost savings to some participating agencies in special forms of coordinated transportation service
• More centralized management of existing resources results in greater visibility for transportation services to:
  • Riders
  • Agencies needing trips for their clients
  • The community
  • Funders
• And results in:
  • Reduced consumer confusion about how to access services
  • Clear lines of authority
  • More professional (comfortable, reliable, and safe) transportation services

Answer:

The Section 5309 program, from which the VTCLI grant funds come, allows in-kind contributions and the market value of real property integral to the project to be counted as cash toward local share but does not allow volunteer drivers as an eligible source of local match.
From State Transit Guidance:
In-Kind and Other Soft MatchIn limited circumstances, local governments and other agencies may use in-kind and/or other contributed services as soft match for projects. Office space, staff services, contract expenses, and other local operating costs may be allowable in-kind match to certain grant funded projects . . . . . In addition, real property may also be used toward the local share of certain capital projects. (Resource Guide for Transit and Transit-Related Programs, Florida DOT, p. 17, December 2005. http://www.floridartap.org/pdfs/TransitResourceGuide.pdf (PDF))

Contact Us: VeteransTransportation@dot.gov

Answer:

Once the SSO Formula Grant is active, States must submit several types of reports, including a Federal Financial Report and Milestone Progress Report. These reports are required quarterly and should demonstrate progress toward milestones. Please see the most recent version of FTA Circular 5010.1 or contact your regional office for details.
States should note that all project expenditures, whether paid for with Federal award money or local matching funds, must comply with Federal requirements, including Buy America, civil rights, economic development, etc.

Answer:

The level of service provided to people with disabilities, including those who use wheelchairs, must be equivalent to that provided to people without disabilities. The service characteristics for determining whether the service is equivalent are:
Response time
Fares
Geographic area of service
Hours and days of service
Restrictions or priorities based on trip purpose
Availability of information and reservations capability
Any constraints on capacity or service availability
A transit system partnering with a ridesourcing entity to provide demand-responsive service to a new service area would have to ensure not only that accessible vehicles were available, but that any person requiring an accessible vehicle would not be charged more than a typical ridesource user for a similar trip and would not have to wait longer for service.

Answer:

Any State that was not certified in October 2013 must submit a Certification Work Plan (CWP) to FTA. FTA must approve that CWP prior to the State submitting a grant application.
A CWP outlines a transition plan for a State to achieve certification. The plan should identify gaps or deficiencies in a State’s authority to develop and carry out its SSO program and tactical steps the State plans to take to meet the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) statutory requirements under 49 U.S.C. § 5329(e) under a State-specified timeline. Approved CWPs are intended to provide more certainty that the transition plan will help reach certification. This is a State’s opportunity to receive reasonable assurance that its anticipated SSO program will be MAP-21 compliant and use the available funding for eligible activities that meaningfully and effectively enhance its SSO program. Additional information on the CWP is provided below.
Once the CWP is completed and approved by FTA, the SSO agency must file an electronic grant application with its FTA Regional Office using FTA's Transportation Electronic Award Management (TEAM) system. As part of this process, the State must submit documentation, among other things, evidencing its formal designation of the intended recipient of the FTA SSO grant program funds and the source of its 20 percent local match. The State-designated entity, which may or may not be the SSO agency, must also have the required documents, including the signed Certifications and Assurances on file with the Regional Office. Contact your Regional Office for more information.
States are reminded that grant applications must be in “submitted” status in TEAM by June 30, 2014 to allow time to make awards by FY 2014. For more information, please see the March 10, 2014 Dear Colleague Letter.

Answer:

Emergency and permanent repairs do not need to be in the TIP/STIP if the repairs do not include changes to the location, capacity, or function of the transit asset.  However, FTA recommends that such repair projects undertaken more than a year after a disaster be programmed in the TIP/STIP to ensure that projects are planned and funded alongside non-emergency transportation projects within the State and/or metropolitan planning region. All other ER projects must be in the TIP/STIP prior to incurring costs.

Answer:

The complexity of operating in an urban environment is complicated by multimodal interactions with bicycles, emergency vehicles, pedestrians, etc. A fully-automated transit vehicle would need to be able to distinguish between bystanders and would-be passengers, who are actively walking toward the vehicle or waiting at a designated stop.

FTA is exploring potential non-technical challenges, such as federal policies regarding procurement, accessibility, labor, and other topics. The existing policies were all written with the assumption of a human operator.

Answer:

Funds allocated for response, recovery, and rebuilding may be used for eligible expenses according to statute and FTA regulation, including:

• Repair / replacement of damaged or destroyed assets to a state of good repair;
• Emergency operating expenses for evacuations, temporary emergency service, disaster preparation, and temporary repairs/protective measures.

Funds allocated for resilience projects may be spent on capital projects that are designed and built specifically to address existing and future vulnerabilities to damages from disasters. Please see FTA’s Emergency Relief Manual for further detail.

Answer:

The VTCLI grant program can be used for capital expenses of a one-call center such as hardware, software, in-vehicle technology, facility-related costs, engineering and design.

Answer:

At the planning level, activities should be supplemented by data collection through both national services (e.g., Census Bureau, American Community Survey) and locally developed and administered data collection (e.g., finance department data, community impact assessments, customer surveys). Local data can be derived from local surveys and recordkeeping. Places where surveys may be used include: churches, farmer's markets, transit stations and centers, senior centers and various local community organizations and social groups. These data will permit a comparative assessment of accessibility, travel times, travel mode usage, and other travel attributes across EJ and non-EJ populations. FTA understands the uncertainty with the US 2010 Census data, but currently it is the best data set to use for future EJ analyses. Remember that partnering with local public and nonprofit organizations with an interest in Environmental Justice outcomes (such as local groups that provide services or University researchers) can offer valuable strategies for accessing additional resources and data. There are a variety of tools for you to consider listed on FTA’s website: FTA EJ web page

Answer:

Encountering cigarette smoke, service animals, and other potential allergens is a function of going out in public. Adoption of a no smoking policy at bus stops is a local issue and is not covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA); however, you may contact your local transit authority to discuss such a concern. Under Department of Transportation (DOT) ADA regulations at 49 C.F.R. Section 37.167(d), public transit providers are required to allow trained service animals to accompany riders on vehicles.