The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration (FTA) issued a public notice and request for comments on a proposed General Directive that would reduce the frequency of stop signal overruns in the rail transit industry. Public comments must be submitted by March 20, 2017.
The proposed General Directive would require rail transit agencies and State Safety Oversight Agencies (SSOA) to work together to understand the significant risks of death, injury and property damage associated with stop signal overruns. It would also establish mitigations to reduce the risks, and monitor the implementation and effectiveness of the mitigations.
“Ensuring trains only operate where they have permission is a fundamental way to protect the safety of rail transit passengers, operators and other workers,” stated U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “While rail transit is the safest mode of surface transportation, focus on improving stop signal safety should be a top priority for everyone who is responsible for the safety of transit operations.”
The proposal would, for the first time, establish a definition for stop signal overruns as "a revenue or non-revenue rail transit vehicle passing any signal displaying a visual aspect that indicates to an operator that a train does not have authority to proceed," as specified in a rail transit agency’s operating rules and procedures. It will also require a rail transit agency to conduct a systematic safety risk evaluation of the potential for stop signal overruns on its system, evaluate its operational activities to monitor the implementation and effectiveness of existing mitigations, and develop a corrective action plan, as necessary.
The proposed General Directive would also require SSOAs to participate in, review, and approve the safety risk evaluations conducted by rail transit agencies they oversee, and monitor and report the status of corrective action plans to the FTA.
“Trains running stop signals creates a risk of death, personal injury or damage to property or equipment,” said FTA Acting Administrator Carolyn Flowers. “We need to work hard, with our transit agency partners, to find out how pervasive a problem this is, and to do everything in our power to make sure that no operator is moving a train without express permission from their agency.”
The required actions for this proposed General Directive are grounded on Safety Management Systems (SMS) principles and methods.