Federal Transit Administration March 2019 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is soliciting proposals under the Department of Transportation's Technical Assistance and Workforce Development Program to select an eligible project or projects for the development and dissemination of technical assistance materials supporting public safety awareness campaigns. The technical assistance materials will address public safety issues impacting the transit industry, including but not limited to human trafficking, operator assault, and crime prevention. Technical assistance also may include recommended practices, and public and employee training. The awarded projects will be referred to as the Crime Prevention and Public Safety Awareness projects, and the available funding is $2,000,000 in Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 funds.

FTA and the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority (Sound Transit) intend to prepare an EIS to evaluate the benefits and impacts of the proposed Tacoma Dome Link Extension (TDLE), a light rail transit extension project. The project would improve public transit service between the Federal Way Transit Center in Federal Way, King County and the Tacoma Dome Station in Tacoma, Pierce County. It would respond to a growing number of transportation and community needs identified in the agency's regional transit system plan, Sound Transit 3 (ST3). The project would also cross the lands of the Puyallup Tribe of the Puyallup Reservation (Puyallup Tribe of Indians). FTA and Sound Transit will prepare the EIS in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), FTA environmental regulations, Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act), and Washington's State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA). This Notice initiates formal scoping for the EIS, provides information on the nature of the proposed transit project, invites participation in the EIS process, provides information about the purpose and need for the proposed transit project, includes general information on the range of alternatives being considered for evaluation in the EIS, and identifies potential environmental effects to be considered. It also invites comments from interested members of the public, tribes, and agencies on the scope of the EIS and announces upcoming public scoping meetings. Alternatives being considered for evaluation include a No-Build and various build alternatives to develop light rail in the TDLE corridor. The alternatives were developed through a local planning process including a Regional Transit Long-Range Plan, a regional system plan of transit investments (ST3), and a SEPA early scoping and alternatives development process specific to the TDLE corridor. The results of SEPA early scoping and alternatives planning, as well as other background information, are summarized in the Tacoma Dome Link Extension Scoping Information Report, which is available at Sound Transit's office located at 401 S Jackson Street, Seattle, WA 98104-2826, on the project website: www.soundtransit.org/tdlink, or by contacting the project line at (206) 903-7118.

This notice announces final environmental actions taken by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) for projects in Tarrant, Dallas, and Collin Counties, Texas and Marion County, Indiana. The purpose of this notice is to announce publicly the environmental decisions by FTA on the subject projects and to activate the limitation on any claims that may challenge these final environmental actions.

On February 12, 2019 the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) published a notice of intent (NOI) in the Federal Register to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) with the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority (Sound Transit) for the West Seattle and Ballard Link Extensions (WSBLE) Project. The public scoping period on the NOI was originally scheduled to end on March 18, 2019. FTA is extending the public scoping period and will accept comments until April 2, 2019.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announces a public meeting of the Transit Advisory Committee for Safety (TRACS). TRACS is a discretionary Federal Advisory Committee established by the U.S. Secretary of Transportation (Secretary) in accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act to provide information, advice and recommendations to the Secretary and FTA Administrator on matters relating to the safety of public transportation systems.

By this notice, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is establishing an Emergency Relief Docket for calendar year 2019, so that grantees and subgrantees affected by a national or regional emergency or disaster may request temporary relief from FTA administrative and statutory requirements.