FTA's 8th Annual Workshop

 

 

MARK YOUR CALENDARS...The 8^th Annual State Safety Oversight Meeting will be held in Boston, Massachusetts between September 19 and 23, 2004.  This meeting is sponsored by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and co-hosted by the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Energy (DTE) and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA).

 

This year's annual meeting will begin on Sunday evening (September 19) with a reception for attendees from state safety over-sight agencies, rail transit agencies, FTA, the Federal Railroad Admini-stration, and the

National Transportation Safety Board.  Working sessions will be held on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, combined with tours of the MBTA rail system, the Central Artery project, and the MBTA's new bus rapid transit system (the Silver Line).  The annual meeting will conclude at noon on Thursday (September 23) with a wrap-up of session activities.

The agenda for this year's meeting is still being developed, so please submit your ideas, comments, and suggestions to Bob Adduci (adduci@volpe.dot.gov) or Annabelle Boyd (aboyd@bcgtrans.com).   Official invitations will be mailed at the end of June.  These invitations will contain information regarding hotel reservations and transportation arrangements for Annual Meeting attendees.  We look forward to seeing you there!

 

New Start Systems

 

Three new light rail systems have increased the size of the State Safety Oversight community over the past year.  The additions were all light rail systems in Washington, Texas, and New Jersey.

 

Sound Transit - Tacoma Link - 8/22/2003

 

 

Sound Transit initiated service of the Tacoma Link Light Rail System on August 22, 2003 year.  The 1.6-mile, five-station, $80 million modern electric streetcar light rail line connects Tacoma's Broadway theater district, downtown offices, the University of Washington in Tacoma, the Washington State History Museum, and the Tacoma Dome.

 

Each Tacoma Link station incorporates unique design ideas and artwork that reflect the character of the nearby neighborhoods.  Suggestions and comments from community members helped create the original designs.

 

Through funding from Sound Transit, the City of Tacoma adopted a plan known as Destination Downtown that includes a new zoning code to revitalize its downtown. The plan encourages the future property development of downtown Tacoma around the light rail line.  The strategy builds on the basics of good urban design, desirable housing, efficient transportation, and enjoyable open space.  Other improvements along the route include new sidewalks, pedestrian lighting, trees, benches, bike racks, community kiosks and changes to side streets to improve pedestrian access to the stations.
 

Ridership for the new Tacoma Link system has exceeded preliminary expectations.  Sound Transit projected that the system would carry 2,000 daily trips by 2010, but by the end of the system's first full month of operation, the system already averaged 2,170 trips per day.  By January 2004, Tacoma Link ridership had increased to more than 2,300 daily trips.

 

 

Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County - Houston METRORail - 1/1/2004

 

The Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) of Harris County began revenue service of its new light rail system, Houston METRORail, on January 1, 2004.  The 7.5-mile starter line includes 20 stations, providing patrons with access to Downtown, Midtown, the Museum District, the Texas Medical Center, and Reliant Park.  The initial $325 million system has been

built entirely with local funds.  The system will hopefully be developed into an 80-mile transit system through voter-approved expansions with an estimated total cost of around $80 billion.

 

The Houston public was eager to utilize a downtown rail transit system, as seen by the more than 15,000 riders that showed up to ride on the system's New Year's Day opening. Transit agency officials have forecasted 33,000 daily boardings by year end.  After the system's third month of revenue service, average daily boardings had exceeded 13,000.  Officials believe that with modification of the agency's bus system, light rail daily boardings could triple over the next nine months.

 

 

 

New Jersey Transit - River LINE - 3/14/2004

 

New Jersey Transit (NJT) began revenue service of its third light rail system, the River LINE, on March 14, 2004.  The $1.1 billion system spans 34 miles between Camden and Trenton and includes 20 stations, 20 revitalized bridges, and 54 grade crossings.  Patrons can purchase a trip on the River LINE's diesel light rail vehicles seven days a week for an economical fare of $1.10.  The rail system willprovide access to the Tweeter Center, NJ State Aquarium, Burlington Towne Centre, Sovereign Bank Arena at Mercer County, and Rutgers University as well as enable travelers to connect to other New Jersey Transit trains, AMTRAK, SEPTA, and PATCO service.
 

 

The River LINE is the first light rail system in the United States to implement on-board diesel-electric power instead of electricity from an overhead wire or a third rail.  The diesel-electric technology has been utilized by the O-Train in Ottawa, Ontario since 2001.

 

The new system uses an active freight corridor and operates during the day and early evening, while freight service operates only at night, with some variation on weekends.  NJT has projected the initial ridership of the River LINE to be about 5,900 trips per day.  Officials hope the system's usage will spur the economic development of the 19 riverfront communities between Camden and Trenton, which have lost much of their traditional manufacturing industry.

2003 Preliminary Safety Data

 

FTA's State Safety Oversight Rule (49 CFR Part 659.45) requires that SOAs must submit to FTA an annual report summarizing oversight activities for the preceding twelve months, including accident, injury, and fatality figures for all applicable transit agencies which they oversee.  In 1999, FTA developed an Annual Reporting Template to facilitate the collection of data in a format that could be easily quantified at year's end. The following safety data was taken from the Annual Report submissions since 1999 and offer a multi-year picture of patterns and trends in reported safety data.  The 2003 data presented here are preliminary in nature.  While only 90% of the SSO reporting transit agencies are included here, these agencies represent over 98% of national rail transit ridership.
 

 

 

In 2003, all modes experienced a decrease in accident rates.  For heavy rail and "other" rail, it was the third straight year of declining accident rates.  Heavy rail's rate has decreased 17% since 2000 and "other" rail's rate decreased by 93% over the same period. The "other" rail service accident rate for 2003 of 0.57 injuries per 10M trips is a five-year low.  The 2003 light rail service accident rate has decreased by 5% from the previous year. 

 

From 1999 to 2003, heavy rail service recorded a decrease in the rate of collisions, per 10M passenger trips.  The collision rate fell by 55% over the period.
 

 

 

 

Light rail fatality rates have decreased overall over the past five years.  The 2003 fatality rate of 0.23 fatalities per 10M passenger trips represents a 77% decrease from the 1999 fatality rate of 1.01.

 

 

 "Other" rail injury rates have decreased overall over the past five years.  In 2002 and 2003, other rail service reported no injuries due to collisions.

Public Transportation ISAC

 

In 1998, the Federal Government issued its Policy on Critical Infrastructure Protection, authorizing and encouraging national critical infrastructures to develop and maintain Information Sharing and Analysis Centers (ISACs) as a means of strengthening security and protection against cyber and operations attacks.

In May of 2002 the Surface Transportation Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ST-ISAC) was created.  The ST-ISAC, sponsored by the Association of American Railroads (AAR), collects and analyzes critical security and threat information from worldwide resources and distributes this information to ISAC members.  Services are customized to protect members against a range of threats.

 

In January 2003, the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) was designated the Sector Coordinator by the U.S. Department of Transportation in the creation of a Public Transit ISAC (PT-ISAC), under the umbrella of the existing ST-ISAC, to further promote security for the public transportation industry. In this role, APTA serves as the primary contact to organize and bring the public transportation community together to work cooperatively on security issues.
 

 

The advantage of being under the umbrella of the ST-ISAC is that the viability of reporting and support is greatly increased and economies of scale are realized.  Best security practices and plans to eliminate threats, attacks, vulnerabilities, and countermeasures are drawn upon to protect the sector's cyber and physical infrastructures.

The PT-ISAC collects, analyzes, and distributes critical cyber and physical security and threat information from various sources, including law enforcement, government operations centers, the intelligence community, the U.S. military, academia, and IT vendors on a 24-hour basis, seven days a week.  The PT-ISAC has government-experienced analysts with Top Secret and higher clearances working in government-cleared facilities with secure communications focusing on transit-specific information requirements.

 

There is no cost to an organization for the initial two years of this service.  Through a two-year grant from the FTA, APTA has retained a private sector contractor, EWA Information and Infrastructure Technologies, Inc. (EWA IIT).  EWA IIT, counter-terrorism and intelligence community experts, currently operate both the Surface Transportation and Water ISACs.

 

 The PT-ISAC provides a secure, two-way 24/7 reporting and analysis structure that enables the transmission of critical alerts and advisories.  This provides a critical linkage between the transit industry, the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Transportation Security Administration, and the Department of Homeland Security.  The PT-ISAC also works closely with other established ISACs for other critical sectors, such as banking and finance, telecommunications, energy, and information technology.

 

TO JOIN THE PT-ISAC: Call 1-866-ST ISAC1 (784-7221) or contact: Greg Hull, Director - Operations, Safety & Security Programs American Public Transportation Association Phone: 202-496-4815 E-mail: ghull@apta.com

 

 Source: APTA

FTA Top 20 List

 

In January 2003, FTA released its "Top 20 Security Program Action Items for Transit Agencies." This list contains measures recommended by FTA for immediate consideration and implementation by transit agencies to improve both security and emergency preparedness. FTA hopes that transit agencies will use this list to support their capabilities to:

 

·        be prepared for and well-protected against attacks;

·        respond rapidly and effectively to natural and human-caused threats and disasters;

·        appropriately support the needs of emergency management and public safety agencies in their communities; and

·        be quickly and efficiently restored to full capability in the event of an emergency or disaster.

 

 

 

Since September 11, there is an overwhelming amount of material available on security and emergency preparedness topics. To support the transit industry's identification of useful and relevant materials, in May 2003 FTA unveiled its Top 20 Action Item Resource Page. The website directs transit personnel to the most important and applicable resources on a specific Top 20 Security Action Item.

 

The page offers links to over 300 documents which may be used by transit personnel who are interested in gaining more insight into a particular transit security topic. Materials are divided into Essential Information and Additional Reading.  Executive summaries are provided for all essential information documents. 

The page supplements transit practice with available, open-source materials, including briefing papers, research, recommended practices, planning templates, and checklists and is designed to help transit personnel get the information they need to make the best possible decisions with regard to security and emergency preparedness. FTA will continue to add additional resources, so please check back from time to time to view new materials. The website can be viewed at: http://transit-safety.volpe.dot.gov/security/ SecurityInitiatives/Top20

 

 

OTHER TRANSPORTATION SECURITY RESOURCES: TRB: http://www.trb.org/trb/homepage.nsf/web/security FHWA: http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/OpsSecurity

 

SSO Community Contacts

 

FTA Headquarters

 

Jerry A. Fisher

Program Manager
Office of Safety & Security

400 7th St. SW, TSS-1

Washington DC  20590

Phone: (202) 366-1651

Fax: (202) 366-7951

jerry.fisher@fta.dot.gov

 

Roy Field

Transportation Specialist

Office of Safety & Security

400 7th St. SW, TSS-1

Washington DC  20590

Phone: (202) 366-0197

Fax: (202) 366-7951

roy.field@fta.dot.gov

 

Meghan Ludtke

Counsel

Legal Department, TCC-10

400 7th St. SW,

Washington DC  20592

Phone: (202) 366-4011

Fax: (202) 366-7951

meghan.ludtke@fta.dot.gov

 

FTA Regional Administrators

 

FTA Region 1

Richard Doyle
Kendall Square
55 Broadway
Cambridge, MA 02142

Phone: (617) 494-2055

Fax: (617) 494-2865

richard.doyle@fta.dot.gov

 

FTA Region 2

Letitia Thompson
One Bowling Green
Room 429
New York, NY 10004-1415

Phone: (212) 668-2170

Fax: (212) 668-2136

letitia.thompson@fta.dot.gov

 

FTA Region 3

Herman Shipman
1760 Market Street

Suite 500
Philadelphia, PA  19103

Phone: (215) 656-7100

Fax: (215) 656-7260

herman.shipman@fta.dot.gov

 

FTA Region 4

Hiram Walker
Atlanta Federal Center

Suite 17150
61 Forsyth Street, SW
Atlanta, GA  30303

Phone: (404) 562-3500

Fax: (404) 562-3505

hiram.walker@fta.dot.gov

 

FTA Region 5

Joel Ettinger
200 West Adams

Suite 320
Chicago, IL  60606

Phone: (312) 353-2789

Fax: (312) 886-0351

joel.ettinger@fta.dot.gov

 

FTA Region 6

Robert Patrick
819 Taylor Street
Room 8A36
Fort Worth, TX  76102

Phone: (817) 978-0550

Fax: (817) 978-0575

robert.patrick@fta.dot.gov

 

FTA Region 7

Mokhtee Ahmad
901 Locust Street, Suite 404
Kansas City, MO  64106

Phone: (816) 329-3920

Fax: (816) 329-3921

mokhtee.ahmad@fta.dot.gov

 

FTA Region 8

Lee Waddleton
Columbine Place
216 16th Street, Suite 650
Denver, CO  80202-5120

Phone: (303) 844-6775

Fax: (303) 844-4217

lee.waddleton@fta.dot.gov

 

FTA Region 9

Leslie Rogers
201 Mission Street
Room 2210
San Francisco, CA  94105

Phone: (415) 744-3133

Fax: (415) 744-2726 leslie.rogers@fta.dot.gov

 

FTA Region 10

Richard F. Krochalis
Jackson Federal Building
915 Second Ave, Suite 3142
Seattle, WA  98174-1002

Phone: (206) 220-7957

Fax: (206) 220-7959

rick.krochalis@fta.dot.gov

 

State Oversight Agencies

 
Arizona Department of Transportation

Scott Friedson
206 South 17th Ave
Maildrop 310B
Phoenix, AZ 85007

Phone: (602) 712-6095

sfriedson@dot.state.az.us

 

Arkansas State Highway & Transportation Department

David Lumbert
10324 Interstate 30
P.O. Box 2261
Little Rock, AR 72203

Phone: (501) 569-2559

Fax: (501) 569-2476

david.lumbert@ahtd.state.ar.us

 

California Public Utilities Commission

Robert Strauss
505 Van Ness Avenue,

2nd Floor
San Francisco, CA  94102

Phone: (415) 703-3206

Fax: (415) 703-1910

rls@cpuc.ca.gov

 

Colorado Public Utilities Commission

Ray Jantzen
1580 Logan Street, OL 3
Denver, CO  80203

Phone: (303) 894-2849

Fax: (303) 894-2532

ray.jantzen@dora.state.co.us

 

Florida Department of Transportation

Mike Johnson
Transit Office
605 Suwannee Street, MS-26
Tallahassee, FL  32399

Phone: (850) 414-4525

Fax: (850) 922-4942

jamesmike.johnson@dot.state.fl.us

 

Georgia Department of Transportation

Steven Kish
276 Memorial Drive, SW
Atlanta, GA 30303-3743

Phone: (404) 651-9210

Fax: (404) 657-4221

steve.kish@dot.state.ga.us

Louisiana Department of Transportation & Development

Carol Cranshaw
P. O. Box 94245
Baton Rouge, LA 70804-9245

Phone: (225) 274-4361
Fax: (225) 274-4314

carolcranshaw@dotd.lousiana.gov

 

Maryland Department of Transportation

John Contestabile
7201 Corporate Center Drive
P.O. Box 548
Hanover, MD 21076

Phone: (410) 865-1120

Fax: (410) 865-1388

jcontestabile@mdot.state.md.us

 

Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications & Energy

Brian Cristy
One South Station

2nd Floor
Boston, MA 02110

Phone: (617) 305-3770

Fax: (647) 478-2598

brian.cristy@state.ma.us

 

Michigan Department of Transportation

Tim Hoeffner
Van Wagoner Building

425 West Ottawa

P.O. Box 30050

Lansing, MI 48909

Phone: (517) 335-1931

Fax: (517) 335-7997

hoeffnert@michigan.gov

 

Minnesota Department of Public Safety

Major Kent O'Grady
444 Cedar St.

Suite 130
St Paul, MN 55101-5130

Phone: (651) 282-6403

Fax: (651) 296-5937

kent.ogrady@state.mn.us

 

Missouri Department of Transportation

Robert Kraus
2217 St. Mary's Blvd.
P. O. Box 270
Jefferson City, MO  65102

Phone: (573) 751-7124

Fax: (575) 526-2170

krausr1@mail.modot.state.mo.us

 

Nevada Department of Transportation

James Mallery

1263 South Stewart Street
Carson City, NV  89712

Phone: (775) 888-7464
Fax: (775) 888-7207

jmallery@dot.state.nv.us

 

New Jersey Department of Transportation

Bob Sedlock
State Safety Oversight
225 E. State Street, 4E, Box 177
Trenton, NJ 08666-0177

Phone: (609) 292-6893

Fax: (609) 633-9367

Bob.sedlock@dot.state.nj.us

 

New York Public Transportation Safety Board

Jerry Shook
Passenger & Freight Division
1220 Washington Avenue
Bldg 7A, Room 630
Albany, NY 12232-

Phone: (518) 457-6500

Fax: (518) 457-4637

jshook@gw.dot.state.ny.us

 

North Carolina Department of Transportation, Rail Division

George Young

1556 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-1556

Phone: (919) 715-8742

Fax: (919) 715-8704

gyoung@dot.state.nc.us

Ohio Department of Transportation

Dave Seech
Office of Transit, 2nd Floor
1980 West Broad Street
Columbus, OH 43223

Phone: (614) 644-9515

Fax: (614) 466-0822

dave.seech@dot.state.oh.us

 

Oregon Department of Transportation

Kofi Kyei
123 NW Flanders
Portland, OR 97209

Phone: (503) 731-4835

Fax: (503) 731-8531

kofi.o.kyei@odot.state.or.us

 

Pennsylvania Department of Transportation

David Barber
Bureau of Public Transportation,

400 North St., 6th Floor
PO Box 3151
Harrisburg, PA 17105-3151

Phone: (717) 787-1207

Fax: (717) 772-2985

dabarber@state.pa.us

 

Puerto Rico State Emergency and Disaster Management Agency

Nazario Lugo Burgos

P.O. Box 9066597

San Juan, PR  00906-6597

Phone: (787) 725-3234

Fax: (787) 725-4244

nlugo@aemead.gobierno.pr

 

Regional Transit Authority

Duana Love
175 West Jackson St.
Suite 1550
Chicago, IL 60604

Phone: (312) 913-3248

Fax: (312) 913-3206

loved@rtachicago.org

 

St. Clair County Transit

District

Bill Grogan
1004 South Lincoln Ave

Suite 1
O'Fallon, IL 62269

Phone: (618) 628-8090

Fax: (618) 628-7820

bgrogan@scctd.org

 

Tennessee Department of Transportation

Jim Ladieu
Suite 1800 J.K. Polk Building
505 Deaderick Street
Nashville, TN 37243

Phone: (615) 253-1042

Fax: (615) 253-1482

jim.ladieu@state.tn.us

 

Texas Department of Transportation

Susan Hausmann
Public Transportation Division
125 East 11th Street
Austin, TX 78701

Phone: (512) 416-2833

Fax: (512) 416-2830

shausman@dot.state.tx.us

 

Tri-State Oversight Committee

Natalie Jones
Reeves Municipal Building
2000 14th Street,

5th Floor
Washington, DC 20009

Phone: (202) 671-0539

Fax: (202) 671-0650

natalie.jones@dc.gov

 

Utah Department of Transportation

Eric Cheng
4501 South 2700 West
Box 143200
Salt Lake City, UT 84114-3200

Phone: (801) 965-4284

Fax: (801) 965-4736

echeng@utah.gov

 

Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation

Karen Rae
1313 East Main St., Suite 300
Richmond, VA 23219

Phone: (804) 786-1051

Fax: (804) 225-3664

krae@drpt.state.va.us

 

Washington State Department of Transportation

Jeff Schultz
Public Transportation & Rail Div.
Transportation Building
PO Box 47387
Olympia, WA 98504-7387

Phone: (360) 705-7981

Fax: (360) 705-6821

schultj@wsdot.wa.gov

 

Wisconsin Department of Transportation

John Etzler
PO Box 7913
4802 Sheboygan Ave.
Madison, WI 53707-7913

Phone: (608) 266-9637

Fax: (608) 266-0658

 john.etzler@dot.state.wi.us