The Federal Transit Administration lacks the data necessary to nationally oversee transit safety, says the Transportation Department office of inspector general in a Jan. 31 report.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in 2009 called on Congress to approve legislation giving the FTA a direct role in setting rail transit safety standards and oversee their implementation in localities that take federal rail dollars. Currently 28 oversight agencies oversee 35 light rail and 13 heavy rail systems operated by 48 transit agencies across the country, leading to a disparity in standards such as rail car crashworthiness and train operator certification.

The only way FTA would be able to step into an expanded oversight role would be to adopt data-driven, risk-based oversight, the OIG report says. But, while FTA captures basic safety incident data such as fatalities and injuries, it doesn't have detailed information on matters such as the condition of rail transit assets.

Were the FTA to increase its responsibilities, it would also have to institute new practices to ensure data quality, a problem that has plagued other Transportation Department regulators such as the Federal Highway Administration, the report adds.

The agency would also face the difficult task of articulating a uniform set of national safety performance measures, since without standardization in the measures, it would be unable to assess how well local agencies do.

Even without expanded authority, the report recommends that FTA improve its data collection, an effort FTA officials say they're undertaking in an assessment of current data gaps.

For more:
- download the report, MH-2012-048 (.pdf)

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