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FTA Panel: Implementing SMS
The recently passed FAST Act reinforces FTA’s safety oversight of public transit agencies first granted by MAP-21, FTA officials reported at a Jan. 11 panel discussion during the Transportation Research Board’s 95th Annual Meeting, noting that “safety is integral to all other DOT strategic goals,” which include ensuring state of good repair, economic competitiveness, quality of life and environmental sustainability.
Further, a Safety Management System (SMS) is the basis for FTA’s proposed National Public Transportation Safety Program. “The objective of SMS is to proactively control hazards and their consequences,” said Thomas Littleton, associate administrator, FTA Office of Transit Safety and Oversight, in a new safety bulletin (see details below). Littleton moderated the panel.
Panelists included Vincent Valdes, associate administrator, FTA Office of Research, Demonstration and Innovation; Lynn Spencer, director, and Brian Alberts, program analyst, Office of System Safety; and Scott Sauer, assistant general manager, System Safety Division, Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA).
They offered their assessment of the crucial steps in implementing a successful SMS, from devising an organization-wide implementation process to understanding reporting requirements and developing a safety culture.
A few key steps in implementing a SMS include securing commitment from the agency general manager, creating a team, training, conducting a safety culture survey and a gap analysis, devising a plan that fills in the gaps and monitoring follow-up activities, Spencer noted.
The implementation plan needs to identity “who does what and what’s the timeline,” she said, adding that a SMS plan “is not a ‘one-off’ of disconnected activities.”
Sauer said SEPTA is focusing on “four pillars” as it transitions to SMS: a management policy, risk management, assessment and promotion. “I look at best practices from every mode [at SEPTA] and apply it to all other modes to see if they are easily adaptable,” he said. “In most cases, they are,” he added. “It’s the process of fitting all the pegs in the right holes.”
He also said that SEPTA safety officials learn from incidents at other agencies. “When we see peer agencies going through a situation, we try to act like it happened to us to learn from those incidents.”
To learn more about SMS, including its framework, e-learning and classroom training, click here. In related news, FTA recently issued a safety bulletin that provides guidance and resources about vendors offering SMS support to help transit officials distinguish SMS from other proposed services. FTA officials recommend that transit agencies become familiar with the SMS framework and training courses prior to contracting for SMS support.
Find the bulletin here or contact Lynn Spencer, director of system safety.
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