Federal Transit Administration May 17, 2016 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

FTA is inviting the public to evaluate and provide comments on its Compendium of transit safety standards and protocols. The Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act) requires the Secretary of Transportation to conduct a review of public transportation safety standards and protocols to document existing standards and protocols and examine their efficacy. Following the review, the Secretary also is required to engage with the public in an evaluation of the standards to assess the need to establish additional Federal minimum public transportation safety standards. Upon completion of the review and evaluation, the Secretary must issue a report presenting the findings of the review of standards; the outcome of the evaluation; a comprehensive set of recommendations to improve the safety of the public transportation industry, including recommendations for regulatory changes, if applicable; and actions that the Secretary of the Department of Transportation will take to address the recommendations provided.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) received a formal request from the Pace Suburban Bus Division of the Regional Transportation Authority (Pace) for a Buy America non-availability waiver to purchase 188 Dodge Caravan minivans for its vanpool program. Minivans are considered rolling stock and are subject to the Buy America waiver set forth in 49 U.S.C. 5323(j)(2)(C), which requires that minivans (i) contain more than 60 percent domestic content, and (ii) final assembly of the vehicles occurs in the United States. Although initially Pace sought only a waiver of the requirement that final assembly take place in the United States, Pace now seeks a waiver of both requirements. Because FTA is aware of at least four manufacturers that can meet the final assembly requirement, however, FTA is proposing a waiver of only the domestic content requirement for non-ADA-accessible minivans. This waiver would apply to all procurements of non-ADA-accessible minivans by any FTA grantee and would be limited to contracts entered into before September 30, 2019 or until a fully compliant domestic source becomes available, whichever is earlier. In accordance with 49 U.S.C. 5323(j)(3)(A), FTA is providing notice of this proposed waiver and seeks public and industry comment on whether FTA should grant the waiver.