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The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has announced a new initiative focusing on adapting public transportation assets and services to the impacts of climate change.
“Subway tunnels, busways, rail tracks, and maintenance facilities are vulnerable to increased flooding from more frequent and intense rain storms, rising sea level, and storm surges,” explained FTA Deputy Administrator Therese McMillan in a July 8 Dear Colleague letter. “Extreme heat can deform rail tracks, stress materials, reduce asset life, and jeopardize customer and worker health and safety. In fact, recorded weather data already shows increases in heat waves and heavy precipitation, which are affecting transit now.”
She continued: “While transit and other sectors can and must play a role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions to lower the severity of impacts, because of the level of emissions already in the atmosphere, some climate changes are already in the pipeline and responsible risk management calls for adaptive responses to reduce vulnerability. FTA seeks to be a partner with the transit industry in responding to this challenge and we have a number of resources and opportunities available.”
FTA has issued a request for applications for transit climate change adaptation assessment pilots; the deadline is Aug. 25. Available funding totals $525,000, and FTA plans to make four cooperative agreement awards.
In addition, FTA is preparing a report that examines anticipated climate impacts on U.S. transit, climate change adaptation efforts by domestic and foreign transit agencies, transit adaptation strategies, risk management tools, and implementation considerations.
A series of workshops and webinars for transit agencies and FTA regional and headquarters staff begins Aug. 3 in Los Angeles, directly following the APTA Sustainability Workshop. Subsequent workshops are tentatively scheduled for September in Chicago and October in Washington, DC, while national webinars are scheduled for Aug. 8 and early November.
More information is available online, by clicking on “FTA Climate Change Adaptation Initiative.” |
