2024 PTASP Final Rule Supporting Statement 4.11.2024

U.S. Department of Transportation

Federal Transit Administration

Supporting Statement for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions

Public Transportation Agency Safety Plans (PTASP)

(OMB# 2132-0580)

Abstract

The purpose of this request is to seek the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) approval for a currently approved information collection that is associated with a Final Rulemaking. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) was published on April 26, 2023. OIRA filed comment on the proposed rule on July 14, 2023.  This supporting statement reflects a small increase in the respondent universe from 755 in the previous NPRM submittal to 758, as a result of three new transit agencies being included in the industry. More significantly, this updated supporting statement also reflects a change in the burden hours because of proposals and comments received during the NPRM stage from the respondent universe. Under the current collection, the estimated total annual burden hours is 252,855. Based on the requirements adopted from the comments and proposals during the NPRM phase, FTA estimates that burden hours would be increased by 299,990 hours, totaling 552,845 hours. A summary of the changes is included in response to #14 and an overview of the changes is also presented in the PowerPoint briefing under supplemental documents.

1. Circumstances Making the Collection of Information Necessary

Through the Final Rulemaking, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is proposing new requirements for Public Transportation Agency Safety Plans as authorized by Section 30012 of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, enacted as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), Pub. L. 117-58 (Nov. 15, 2021). The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law amends FTA’s safety program at 49 U.S.C. § 5329(d) by adding to the Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan (PTASP) requirements. These new requirements apply to transit agencies that must have an Agency Safety Plan (ASP) in place under the PTASP regulation (49 CFR part 673).

Pursuant to 49 U.S.C. § 5329(d)(1), each ASP must include, at minimum:

• Approval by the recipient’s Board of Directors, or an Equivalent Authority. In the case of a recipient receiving assistance under 49 U.S.C. § 5307 (section 5307) that is serving an urbanized area with a population of 200,000 or more, approval by the recipient’s Safety Committee is required prior to approval by the recipient’s Board of Directors or Equivalent Authority;

• For each recipient serving an urbanized area with a population of fewer than 200,000, a requirement that the ASP be developed in cooperation with frontline employee representatives;

• Methods for identifying and evaluating safety risk throughout all elements of the recipient’s public transportation system;

• Strategies to minimize the exposure of the public, personnel, and property to hazards and unsafe conditions, and consistent with guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or a State health authority, minimize exposure to infectious diseases;

• A process and timeline for conducting an annual review and update of the ASP;

• Performance targets based on the safety performance criteria set out in the National Public Transportation Safety Plan;

• Assignment of an adequately trained safety officer who reports directly to the general manager, president, or equivalent officer of the recipient;

• A comprehensive staff training program for:

  • the operations personnel and personnel directly responsible for safety that includes the completion of a safety training program and continuing safety education and training; or

  • in the case of a recipient receiving assistance under section 5307 that is serving an urbanized area with a population of 200,000 or more, the operations and maintenance personnel and personnel directly responsible for safety of the recipient that includes the completion of a safety training program; continuing safety education and training; and de-escalation training; and

• In the case of a recipient receiving assistance under section 5307 that is serving an urbanized area with a population of 200,000 or more, a risk reduction program for transit operations to improve safety by reducing the number and rates of accidents, injuries, and assaults on transit workers based on data submitted to the National Transit Database under 49 U.S.C. 5335, including—

  • a reduction of vehicular and pedestrian accidents involving buses that includes measures to reduce visibility impairments for bus operators that contribute to accidents, including retrofits to buses in revenue service and specifications for future procurements that reduce visibility impairments; and

  • the mitigation of assaults on transit workers, including the deployment of assault mitigation infrastructure and technology on buses, including barriers to restrict the unwanted entry of individuals and objects into the workstations of bus operators when a risk analysis performed by the Safety Committee of the recipient determines that such barriers or other measures would reduce assaults on transit workers and injuries to transit workers.

Pursuant to 49 U.S.C. § 5329(d)(5), each recipient receiving assistance under Section 5307 that is serving an urbanized area with a population of 200,000 or more must establish a Safety Committee that must:

• Be convened by a joint labor-management process;

• Consist of an equal number of—

  • frontline employee representatives, selected by a labor organization representing the plurality of the frontline workforce employed by the recipient or, if applicable, a contractor to the recipient, to the extent frontline employees are represented by labor organizations; and

  • management representatives; and

• Have, at a minimum, responsibility for—

  • identifying and recommending risk-based mitigations or strategies necessary to reduce the likelihood and severity of consequences identified through the transit agency’s safety risk assessment;

  • identifying mitigations or strategies that may be ineffective, inappropriate, or were not implemented as intended; and

  • identifying safety deficiencies for purposes of continuous improvement.

Pursuant to 49 U.S.C. § 5329(d)(4), the Safety Committee of a recipient serving an urbanized area with a population of 200,000 or more must set performance targets for the safety risk reduction program using a 3-year rolling average of data submitted by the recipient to the National Transit Database. Performance targets for a safety risk reduction program are not required until FTA has updated the National Public Transportation Safety Plan to include these performance measures.

FTA is proposing to implement these statutory requirements through revision to Part 673 to Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations. The proposed changes include revised requirements for the development, update, and approval of ASPs; the establishment of a Safety Committee; cooperation with frontline transit worker representatives in the development of ASPs; the establishment of a safety risk reduction program for transit operations to improve safety by reducing the number and rates of safety events, injuries, and assaults on transit workers based on data submitted to the National Transit Database (NTD); the establishment of safety performance targets for risk reduction programs; the establishment of de-escalation training for certain transit workers; and the incorporation of guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or a State health authority regarding exposure to infectious diseases into the agency’s Safety Management System (SMS) processes. FTA also proposes revisions based on coordination with other FTA programs and proposed rules. FTA is also proposing to extend the agency Safety Assurance requirements associated with continuous improvement to small public transportation providers.

2. Purpose and Use of the Information

The ASP and supporting documentation will be the mechanism through which a transit agency demonstrates that it has complied with the statutory requirements of 49 U.S.C. § 5329(d).

While the ASP specifies the activities that a transit agency must undertake, the information exchange between FTA and its recipients will consist of:

• Annual Certifications and Assurances. FTA requires operators of public transportation systems and States to certify compliance with 49 CFR part 673 through its annual submittal of Certifications and Assurances. These entities will transmit this information through the existing Certification and Assurances module in FTA’s Transit Award Management System (TrAMS).

• Triennial Review Process. FTA will ensure compliance with this regulation through its Triennial Review oversight process. FTA will incorporate questions specific to the PTASP regulation into FTA’s existing oversight questionnaire for transit agencies to evaluate areas of compliance.

• State Management Review Process. FTA also will ensure compliance with this regulation through its triennial State Management Review oversight process. FTA will incorporate questions specific to the PTASP regulation into FTA’s existing oversight questionnaire for States to evaluate areas of compliance.

• Periodic Requests: FTA issues periodic requests to operators of public transportation systems and States for information about compliance with the PTASP regulation. This may include Safety Advisories or Safety Directives that require information collection from transit agencies and States. In addition, FTA encourages transit agencies and states to voluntarily report safety concerns to FTA.

The purpose of this information is to ensure that the specifications of the regulation are carried out through a process of self-certification by a transit agency or State.

The information collection will help guide a transit agency and FTA’s safety program priorities. The information will come from the transit agencies through their ASP drafting and certification processes. FTA anticipates that this improved information flow will broaden an individual transit agency’s experiences in implementing a mature SMS.

Another important use of the information is to strengthen a transit agency’s SMS processes internally. FTA anticipates that a transit agency’s SMS processes will be improved and that safety outcomes will be mitigated or eliminated through the requirements for the Accountable Executive, and the Safety Committee where applicable, to approve plans, for certain safety-related decision-making to be elevated to the executive level, and for the involvement of all staff to report safety problems or issues before they become severe. SMS establishes a proactive approach to managing safety risk, as opposed to a reactive one.

3. Use of Information Technology and Burden Reduction

FTA requires transit agencies and States to submit annual certifications and assurances to FTA to ensure compliance with the PTASP regulation. Transit agencies and States may generate and use any processes desired, but submissions and compliance would not require information technology that is more complex than a word processing or spreadsheet file.

The data and information collected will be entered, stored, transmitted, and circulated 100% electronically, both internal to the agency and in external communications from agency to State, and from agency to FTA submissions.

Transit agencies and States may use ASP templates issued by FTA (attached in supplementary documents section of ROCIS), which are publicly available on FTA’s website.

FTA’s existing TrAMS system will be used by transit agencies and States for the submission of annual certification and assurance information. FTA will not be collecting ASPs on an annual basis, but it will be requiring transit agencies and States to annually self-certify, in accordance with FTA’s established policies and procedures, that they are complying with the PTASP regulation.

4. Efforts to Identify Duplication and Use of Similar Information

No other Federal agency or operating administration within the U.S. Department of Transportation collects PTASP regulation certification information. There is no duplication of information.

5. Impact on Small Businesses or Other Small Entities

The information collected does not involve small businesses.

6. Consequences of Collecting the Information Less Frequently

Any delay or curtailment in the self-reporting of this information would hamper the ability of FTA to monitor the implementation of, and compliance with, the PTASP regulation and the improvements in safety management. Additionally, without the information requirements in the rule, FTA would be unable to adequately determine compliance with the statutory requirements of 49 U.S.C. § 5329(d).

7. Special Circumstances that Require the Collection to be Conducted in a Manner Inconsistent with OMB Guidelines

There are no special circumstances that require the collection of information inconsistent with any OMB guidelines.

8. Comments in Response to the Federal Register Notices and Efforts to Consult Outside Agencies

A Final Rulemaking was published on April 11, 2024 Vol. 89, No. 71 pages 25694-25744.

A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking was published on April 26, 2023 Vol. 88 No. 80 page 25336. The comment period closed on June 26, 2023. FTA received 53 comment submissions to the docket with a total of 636 individual comments on specific topics, such as safety committees, safety risk reduction programs, and administrative questions. FTA has revised previous burden estimates to reflect commenter feedback received during the NPRM process.

Changes from the proposed rule were made based on Comments and Decisions made with OST and the White House Infrastructure Implementation Team

• Safety Risk Mitigations related to the Safety Risk Reduction Program

• Accountable Executive implementation of various mitigations

• Safety Committee Procedures

• Safety Risk Reduction Program integrated into SMS and removal of separate section 673.20

• Safety Committee and Cooperation with Frontline Transit Worker Representatives

• FTA Actions to Protect Transit Workers

• Definitions

• Economic Analysis

In 2019, FTA established the PTASP Technical Assistance Center (TAC) to provide ongoing and direct technical assistance to agencies required to comply with the PTASP regulation. Since that time the PTASP TAC has provided extensive support to transit agencies and States, including direct responses to over 1,900 inquiries, reviews of over 400 ASPs, facilitation of 30 webinars with over 5,000 participants, conduct of 17 workshops with over 600 participants, and development and publication of over 70 technical assistance documents, tools, and templates via the PTASP TAC website.

In addition, to provide additional outreach and technical assistance to our respondents, FTA published:

• Dear Colleague Letter in Feb. 2022 (included under the supplementary documents section of ROCIS). This letter provided the transit industry advance notice of the new requirements resulting from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law changes to Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan (PTASP) requirements.

• PTASP Checklist for Bus Transit (included in supplementary documents section of ROCIS). The checklist is intended for States and operators of public transportation systems that are required to draft an ASP in accordance with 49 CFR Part 673. Use of the checklist is voluntary.

• PTASP Checklist for Rail Transit Agencies and State Safety Oversight Agencies (included in supplementary documents section of ROCIS). The checklist is intended for use by rail transit agencies that are required to draft an agency safety plan (ASP) in accordance with 49 CFR Part 673 and for the State Safety Oversight Agencies that must review and approve the ASP per 49 CFR Part 674. Use of the checklist is voluntary.

• Agency Safety Plan (ASP) Directory as part of the PTASP TAC Resource Library. Transit agencies can use the publicly available ASPs in the directory as a resource to help with updating their own ASP.

Prior to publishing the NPRM, FTA engaged in stakeholder outreach regarding the new Bipartisan Infrastructure Law PTASP requirements. In accordance with the Department of Transportation’s Guidance on Communication with Parties outside of the Federal Executive Branch (Ex Parte Communications), FTA added a memorandum summarizing these communications to the docket for this rulemaking.

9. Explanation of Any Payment or Gift to Respondents

The PTASP regulation does not include any payments or gifts to respondents.

10. Assurance of Confidentiality Provided to Respondents

No elements of confidentiality are involved in the PTASP regulation.

11. Justification for Sensitive Questions

No sensitive questions are included in the PTASP regulation.

12. Estimates of Hour Burden Including Annualized Hourly Costs

Estimated Annual Number of Respondents: 758

Estimated Annual Number of Responses: 758 (one per respondent annually)

Estimated Annual Burden Hours: 552,846

Estimated Annual Cost: $36,301,199

For more details on these estimates, please see the information below.

Table 1: Existing PTASP Requirements Annualized Burden

		Total Responses	Burden Hours Per Response	Total Annual Burden
Rail	Development/Certification		3	186
	Implement/Document	62	892	55,295
	Recordkeeping	62	39	2,408
Large Bus 5307	Development/Certification	71	3	222
	Implement/Document	71	661	48,913
	Recordkeeping	71	41	3,027
Small 5307	Development/Certification	572	3	1,716
	Implement/Document	572	212	121,137
	Recordkeeping	572	34	19,601
States	Development	5	40	200
	Certification	50	3	150
Grand Total		755		252,855

Table 2: Existing PTASP Requirements Annual Costs (Includes Labor, IT/Materials, and Travel)

		Annual Cost
Rail	Development/Certification	$ 10,382
	Implement/ Document	$7,458,603
	Recordkeeping	$1,387,059
Large Bus 5307	Development/Certification	$8,770
	Implement/ Document	$4,307,712
	Recordkeeping	$1,314,388
Small 5307	Development/Certification	$4,150
	Implement/ Document	$8,643,822
	Recordkeeping	$3,499,226
States	Development/Certification	$8,436
Total		$ 26,642,548

Table 3: New Number of Respondents¹

Agency Respondent Type	Number of Respondents
States	50
Rail	62
5307 Large Bus	74
5307 Small	572
Total	758

Table 3 establishes the respondent universe applicable under the PTASP regulation. All respondents must certify compliance with the PTASP regulation annually. States are responsible for developing new ASPs for new small public transportation providers in their State unless the new provider opts to develop its own ASP. Rail, large bus, and small public transportation providers are required to implement their ASP.

The total number of respondents is 758, which includes 62 Section 5307 rail respondents, 74 Section 5307 large bus respondents, 572 Section 5307 small respondents, and 50 applicable State respondents. This supporting statement reflects a small increase in the respondent universe from 755 in the previous submittal to 758 as a result of (3) new 5307 Large Bus transit agencies.

Table 4: New PTASP Requirements Costs, Years 1-3, (Includes Labor, IT/Materials, and Travel)

		Year 1	Year 2	Year 3	Total
Rail	Development	$ 1,097,307			$ 1,097,307
	Implement/Document	$ 2,145,689	$ 2,145,689	$ 2,145,689	$ 6,437,066
Large Bus 5307	Development	$ 829,599			$ 829,599
	Implement/Document	$ 1,341,716	$ 1,341,716	$ 1,341,716	$ 4,025,149
Small 5307	Development	$ 2,911,728			$ 2,911,728
	Implement/Document	$ 4,558,368	$ 4,558,368	$ 4,558,368	$ 13,675,104

Summary for Table 4:

The new PTASP requirements labor and cost estimates in Tables 4 are based on the following parameters:

• Responses occur once annually for all entities.

• The annual hour burden is calculated with the following factors applied:

  • There are two different phases of rule adherence addressed by the new requirements: Development and Implementation/Documentation.

  • The tasks associated with the Development phase apply to agencies developing new elements of their SMS to address new requirements and updating their ASP to reflect the new processes.

  • Costs are estimated based on the required number of staff labor-hours for each task, the wage rates for those labor-hours, and the number of affected transit providers.

  • Wage rates for recipient labor hours are based on 2021 BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) using the following industry groups: Interurban and Rural Bus Transportation and Urban Transit Systems. Some occupations did not have wage data available within a specific industry group. In these cases, wages are estimated based on the average wage differences between the industries for the occupations associated with each new required activity. The annual salaries were adjusted to account for employee benefits and other costs of compensation, using BLS data².

• Explanation of how the burden was estimated for new requirements:

  • For each new requirement, FTA identified the affected universe of agencies based on agency type, agency size, and the size of the urbanized area(s) that each agency serves. For example, some new requirements only apply to agencies that serve an urbanized area with a population 200,000 or more. Other new requirements only apply to agencies that serve urbanized areas with a population of fewer than 200,000.

  • FTA then estimated the labor burden for each response action and divided it across labor categories applicable for the agency type and the new required activity. This burden estimated new labor specific to the new requirements of the rule and assumed that the associated paperwork burdens were new.

  • FTA calculated the total labor burdens per labor category for the Development and Implement/Document phases.

  • The calculation uses three years of the expected burden of labor, with the greatest labor burden falling in the first year when agencies will develop new SMS processes to address new requirements and update ASPs to reflect these changes. Year 2 and Year 3 include the ongoing burden related to implementing the new required activity.

Table 5: Total New Annualized Burden For Development, Certification, Implementation and Record Keeping Years 1-3

		Respondents	Year 1		Year 2		Year 3
			Burden Hours Per Response	Total Burden	Burden Hours Per Response	Total Burden	Burden Hours Per Response	Total Burden
Rail	Development/ Certification	62	407	25,241	3	186	3	186
	Implement/ Document	62	1,781	110,409	1,781	110,409	1,781	110,409
	Recordkeeping	62	39	2,408	39	2,408	39	2,408
Large Bus 5307	Development/ Certification	74	213	15,743	3	222	3	222
	Implement/ Document	74	1,061	78,511	1,061	78,511	1,061	78,511
	Recordkeeping	74	41	3,027	41	3,027	41	3,027
Small 5307	Development/ Certification	572	89	50,754	3	1,716	3	1,716
	Implement/ Document	572	361	206,488	361	206,488	361	206,488
	Recordkeeping	572	34	19,601	34	19,601	34	19,601
State	Development/ Certification	50	7	350	7	350	7	350
TOTAL		758		512,532		422,918		422,918

Average estimated annual burden hours for the three years 452,789*

*added Year 1 512,532, Year 2 422,918 and Year 3 422,918 and divided by three to get the average

Table 6: Total New Annualized Burden For Periodic Requests

FTA issues periodic requests to transit agencies and States. This may include Safety Advisories, Safety Directives, or other requests for information about compliance with the PTASP regulation that require information collection from transit agencies and States. In addition, FTA encourages transit agencies and States to voluntarily report safety concerns to FTA. It is estimated that Large Bus 5307 and Rail will assume 30% each (30,017 Large Bus and 30,017 Rail) of the periodic request due to the nature of their systems while Small 5307 and States will account for 20% each (Small 5307 20,011 and State 20,011) of the burden hours for a total of 100,056.

	Quantity	Hours	Respondents	Total
Safety Advisories/ Directives	4	20	758	60,640
Other	5	10	758	37,900
Voluntary reporting	2	1	758	1,516
				100,056

Summary for Table 6:

Safety Advisories/Directives burden hours are projected based on an average of four advisories or directives a year to transit agencies and States and two voluntary reports a year per transit agency and State.

Summary of the Total Estimated Annual Burden Hours (Table 5 & Table 6 )

Respondent Category	Est. Annual Burden Hours* (Development, Implementation, Certification and Record Keeping)	Est. Annual Burden Hours (Periodic Requests)	Total Est. Annual Burden Hours
Rail	121,355	30,017	151,372
Large Bus 5307	86,934	30,017	116,951
Small 5307	244,151	20,011	264,162
State	350	20,011	20,361
Total	452,789	100,056	552,846 Total Estimated Burden Hours

*Average of first 3 Years

552,845 - Total estimated annual burden hours for the IC

Table 7: Total New Costs, Years 1-3, (Includes Labor, IT/Materials, and Travel)

		Year 1	Year 2	Year 3	Total
Rail	Development/Certification	$1,107,689	$10,382	$10,382	$1,128,453
	Implement/Document	$9,604,292	$9,604,292	$9,604,292	$28,812,875
	Recordkeeping/Periodic Requests	$1,387,059	$1,387,059	$1,387,059	$4,161,177
Large Bus 5307	Development/Certification	$838,369	$8,770	$8,770	$855,909
	Implement/ Document	$5,649,428	$5,649,428	$5,649,428	$16,948,285
	Recordkeeping/Periodic Requests	$1,314,388	$1,314,388	$1,314,388	$3,943,164
Small 5307	Development/Certification	$2,915,878	$4,150	$4,150	$2,924,178
	Implement/ Document	$13,202,190	$13,202,190	$13,202,190	$39,606,570
	Recordkeeping/Periodic Requests	$3,499,226	$3,499,226	$3,499,226	$10,497,678
States	Development/Certification	$8,436	$8,436	$8,436	$25,308
Total		$39,526,955	$34,688,321	$34,688,321	$108,903,597

Summary for Table 7:

Table 7 presents the total annual burden for the proposed changes to the PTASP regulation, including costs for all existing PTASP requirements as well as costs for the new PTASP regulation requirements established the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and defined in the NPRM.

The average total annual new cost is $36,301,199.

Estimate—Total Annual Cost Burden to Respondents/Recordkeepers

The estimates in Section 12 above include all costs, including labor, information technology (IT), and travel for the full spectrum of activities from initial plan development, through implementation and documentation, to recordkeeping. There are no additional costs beyond what is estimated there, except for FTA’s own costs as described in Section 14 below.

13. Annualized Cost to the Federal Government

	Annual
Development and Certification	$48,984
Implementation and Documentation	$122,459
Total	$171,443

Notes:

*This data includes only labor costs. The FTA cost burden reflects estimated FTA costs for the development of templates and other startup costs, as well as ongoing coordination with transit agencies and providing oversight as needed. These costs are relatively limited because FTA will assess each transit agency’s compliance with the rule as part of the normal triennial review process.

The annual average burden hours are 2,207. The wage rate used was an estimated fully-loaded hourly rate for a mid-range general schedule grade 12 FTA employee. This rate equated to $77.68 per hour.³

14. Explanation for Program Changes or Adjustments

The change in the current supporting statement reflects a change in the burden hours from the previous PRA submittal as a result of the proposals in the NPRM and comments received from the transit industry in response to those proposals. This supporting statement reflects a small increase in the respondent universe from 755 in the previous submittal to 758 as a result of three new transit agencies. More significantly, this updated supporting statement also reflects a change in the burden hours as a result of proposals and comments received during the NPRM stage from the respondent universe. Under the current collection, the estimated total annual burden hours is 252,855. Based on the requirements adopted from the comments and proposals during the NPRM phase, FTA estimates that burden hours would be increased by 299,990 hours, totaling 552,845 hours.

The requirements, including those resulting from the proposal and comments include:

• Transit agencies that serve urbanized areas with a population fewer than 200,000 to develop the ASP in cooperation with frontline transit worker representatives;

• Transit agencies that serve urbanized areas with a population of 200,000 or more to establish a Safety Committee and include or incorporate by reference in their ASP procedures regarding the composition, responsibilities, and operations of the Safety Committee. The Safety Committee must:

  • be convened by a joint labor-management process;

  • at a minimum, consist of an equal number of frontline transit worker representatives and management representatives;

  • to the extent practicable, include frontline transit worker representatives from major transit service functions, such as operations and maintenance, across the transit system; and

  • have, at a minimum, responsibility for identifying and recommending safety risk mitigations or strategies necessary to reduce the likelihood and severity of potential consequences identified through the agency’s safety risk assessment; identifying safety risk mitigations or strategies that may be ineffective, inappropriate, or were not implemented as intended; and identifying safety deficiencies for purposes of continuous improvement.

• Transit agencies that serve urbanized areas with a population of 200,000 or more to develop and implement a safety risk reduction program for transit operations to improve safety performance by reducing the number and rates of safety events, injuries, and assaults on transit workers, including—

  • the reduction of vehicular and pedestrian safety events involving transit vehicles that includes consideration of specific safety risk mitigations, including measures to reduce vehicle operator visibility impairments that contribute to safety events, including retrofits to vehicles in revenue service and specifications for future procurements that reduce visibility impairments; and

  • the mitigation of assaults on transit workers that includes consideration of specific safety risk mitigations, including the deployment of assault mitigation infrastructure and technology on transit vehicles and in transit facilities, including barriers to restrict the unwanted entry of individuals and objects into the workstations of bus operators when a risk analysis performed by the safety committee of the recipient determines that such barriers or other measures would reduce assaults on transit workers and injuries to transit workers.

  • When a Safety Committee recommends safety mitigations it has determined would reduce assaults on transit workers and injuries to transit workers based on a safety risk analysis conducted under § 673.25(c), the transit agency must implement one or more of those mitigations to reduce risk to an acceptable level, unless the Accountable Executive determines the mitigation will not improve the agency’s overall safety performance.

• Small public transportation providers to address continuous improvement within the Safety Assurance component of their SMS; and

• Transit agencies to include de-escalation training, and safety concern identification and reporting training in their comprehensive safety training program.

• Transit agencies that serve urbanized areas with a population of 200,000 or more to include maintenance personnel in their comprehensive safety training program.

• Estimates in this Supporting Statement reflect revisions to originally proposed estimates based on feedback received from commenters during the NPRM process. Based on comments submitted to the docket ion response to proposed requirements, FTA has increased burden estimates related to:

  • cooperation with frontline workers;

  • safety committees;

  • safety risk reduction programs;

  • continuous improvement; and

  • de-escalation training.

15. Plans for Tabulation and publication for collections of information whose results will be published.

FTA does not plan to publish any results from this collection, including any statistical results.

16. Reason(s) the Display of OMB Expiration Date is Inappropriate

Not applicable.

17. Exceptions to Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions

FTA does not claim exceptions to certification for Paperwork Reduction Act submissions.

1 Source: Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan (PTASP) Technical Assistance Center (TAC).

2 www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/ecec.pdf

3 The 2022 annual general schedule salary for a grade 12, step 5 employee in Washington, D.C. is $101,813. An employer-provided benefits multiplier of 1.587 was applied to the salary, which was then divided by 2080 to determine the hourly rate.

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