Background 

Through the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21^st Century Act (MAP-21) and the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act), Congress required operators of public transportation systems that receive FTA funds to develop and implement a Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan (PTASP). FTA is implementing this requirement through the publication of the PTASP Final Rule (49 CFR Part 673). The PTASP Final Rule is one of four components of a comprehensive public transportation safety program Congress required

FTA to establish in federal law, including the:

• National Public Transportation Safety Program
• Public Transportation Safety Certification Training Program
• State Safety Oversight Program 

The rule implements an innovative, performance-based approach to improving transit safety founded on Safety Management System (SMS) principles. SMS is a comprehensive, collaborative approach to managing safety. It brings management and labor together to control risk better, detect and correct safety problems earlier, share and analyze safety data more effectively and measure safety performance more precisely. SMS implementation will provide transit agency leadership with a better understanding of the safety risks within their organizations and enable them to maximize federal, state and local transit investments to proactively implement appropriate solutions to address those risks and ensure the safety of transit passengers and employees. This is codified at 49 U.S.C. § 5329(d).

Questions?

Please direct all PTASP and SMS questions to FTA’s PTASP-TAC e-mail address.

To receive PTASP-related emails, enter your email address and select Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan (PTASP).