The Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) grants the FTA the authority to establish and enforce a new regulatory framework for public transportation safety, and also authorizes an enhanced State Safety Oversight (SSO) program. The FTA is developing new rules to require stronger and more effective public transportation safety programs and expanding its direct oversight of the public transportation industry. RSC supported the FTA carrying out a rail transit system safety examination.

RSC was part of a team tasked to perform a Safety Examination on behalf of the FTA of the Chicago Transit Agency. The FTA requested an exploratory approach where the subject matter experts were tasked to examine the safety and performance related issues and identify gaps for rail systems and stations in adherence to established safety framework and observations regarding their systematic origins.

The Examination identified deficiencies and made observation regarding their systematic origins through a comprehensive assessment of the following criteria:

• Safety culture
• Management’s commitment and accountability to safety
• Safety management policy, risk management, assurance, promotion, and employee hazard reporting system(s)
• Incidents and contributing hazards from data collected by the Authority and root causes as they relate to processes, procedures, tools and staffing
• Review of the processes, procedures, tools and staffing for the related issues.