State Safety Oversight for Rail Fixed Guideway Public Transit Systems, 49 CFR Parts 659 and 674
Vital Assurance has expert capabilities in transit safety and security programs and transit agency operations and maintenance. Our industry leading approach to State Safety Oversight (SSO) is based on a systems engineering understanding of system safety and safety management systems (SMS) that the FTA has incorporated with the program requirements from MAP-21 and FAST Act legislation.
Vital Assurance provides significant technical breadth and depth and a unique SSO perspective. We have direct experience operating multiple SSO programs as an extension of state staff and programs leadership for the past 9 years and detailed familiarity with evolving FTA requirements. Our staff have driven and experienced the changing transit safety landscape caused by MAP-21 from the federal perspective as well, having provided direct support to FTA’s Office of Safety and Oversight (TSO) from 2002 through 2014, including supporting TSO in developing safety performance criteria, performance measurement, and a transit-specific model for SMS all-hazards risk assessment and management. Our staff members’ support of FTA started with security and emergency preparedness technical assistance program (SEMTAP) and evolved to become entirely focused on the federal, state, and transit agency safety programs.
Our hands-on experience supporting the development and certification of SSO programs demonstrates our complete understanding of SSO program challenges and has helped us to develop the technical depth needed to successfully address the changing regulatory and safety and security program landscape. The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) SSO program, supported by Vital Assurance, was the first state to be fully certified and compliant under the new regulatory requirements found in 49 CFR Part 674. This was formally completed via letter to the governor on August 29, 2017.
Vital Assurance provides significant technical breadth and depth and a unique SSO perspective. We have direct experience operating multiple SSO programs as an extension of state staff and programs leadership for the past 9 years and detailed familiarity with evolving FTA requirements. Our staff have driven and experienced the changing transit safety landscape caused by MAP-21 from the federal perspective as well, having provided direct support to FTA’s Office of Safety and Oversight (TSO) from 2002 through 2014, including supporting TSO in developing safety performance criteria, performance measurement, and a transit-specific model for SMS all-hazards risk assessment and management. Our staff members’ support of FTA started with security and emergency preparedness technical assistance program (SEMTAP) and evolved to become entirely focused on the federal, state, and transit agency safety programs.
Our hands-on experience supporting the development and certification of SSO programs demonstrates our complete understanding of SSO program challenges and has helped us to develop the technical depth needed to successfully address the changing regulatory and safety and security program landscape. The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) SSO program, supported by Vital Assurance, was the first state to be fully certified and compliant under the new regulatory requirements found in 49 CFR Part 674. This was formally completed via letter to the governor on August 29, 2017.
Our services to the transit industry include:
- State Safety Oversight Program, Development and Management
- Safety Program Planning, Execution, and Assessment
- Safety Management System (SMS), Development and Implementation
- System Safety and Security Certification Planning and Execution
- Safety Analysis of Signaling Products and Systems
- Safety Analysis of Operations and Maintenance Activities, Rules, and Procedures
- Emergency Event Training, Drill and Exercise Development
- Emergency Operations and Continuity Operations Planning
- FTA Drug and Alcohol Program Compliance
- Reliability, Availability, Maintainability (RAM) Program Planning, Analysis, and Assessment
- Independent Safety Assessor (ISA)
- Automatic Train Control (ATC) and Traditional Signaling Systems Engineering