Federal Transit Administration – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This notice announces final environmental actions taken by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority New York City Transit (MTA NYCT) Canarsie Tunnel Project Revised Alternative Service Plan. The purpose of this notice is to announce publicly the environmental decisions by FTA on the subject project and to activate the limitation on any claims that may challenge these final environmental actions.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the intention of the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to request the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to approve the extension of a currently approved information collection: 49 U.S.C. Section 5310Enhanced Mobility of Seniors and Individuals with Disabilities Program & Section 5311Formula Grants for Rural Areas Program.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and Metro (the designated Metropolitan Planning Organization, or MPO, for the Portland region) issue this early scoping notice for a MAX tunnel project (Project). Metro is exploring ways to improve transit time and reliability to and through the Portland Central City. The purpose of this early scoping notice is to advise other agencies and the public of the intent to further study the feasibility of a tunnel under downtown Portland. The Project would improve regional transit service by addressing current and projected travel time, reliability, and resiliency issues for trips to and across Portland's downtown core. Early scoping for the feasibility study is occurring within the context of the Council on Environmental Quality's regulations for complying with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the intention of the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to request the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to approve the extension of a currently approved information collection: Bus Testing Program.

In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces that the Information Collection Requirements (ICRs) abstracted below have been forwarded to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and comment. The ICR describe the nature of the information collection and their expected burdens. The Federal Register notice with a 60-day comment period soliciting comments on the following collections of information was published on April 2, 2019 (84 FR 1670).

This notice alerts transit agencies to the need to address the risk of transit operator assault when identified through the processes required under the Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan (PTASP) regulation. The PTASP regulation requires transit agencies to develop and implement Safety Management Systems (SMS) and associated processes for all elements of a public transportation system. In cases where transit agencies discover a risk of operator assault, the PTASP regulation requires agencies as part of their SMS processes to develop methods or processes to identify mitigations or strategies necessary as a result of the agency's safety risk assessment. The agency would use these methods or processes to reduce the likelihood and severity of occurrences of operator assault, based on the agency's analysis of the risk.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announces the opportunity to apply for approximately $423.35 million in fiscal year (FY) 2019 funds under the Grants for Buses and Bus Facilities Program (CFDA#20.526). As required by federal public transportation law and subject to funding availability, funds will be awarded competitively to assist in the financing of capital projects to replace, rehabilitate, purchase or lease buses and related equipment, and to rehabilitate, purchase, construct or lease bus-related facilities. Projects may include costs incidental to the acquisition of buses or to the construction of facilities, such as the costs of related workforce development and training activities, and project administration expenses. FTA may award additional funds if they are made available to the program prior to the announcement of project selections.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announces the availability of approximately $5 million in funding, subject to the availability of appropriations, for the Public Transportation on Indian Reservations Program (Tribal Transit Program). This notice is a national solicitation for project proposals and includes the selection criteria and program eligibility information for Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 projects. FTA may fund the program for more or less than the full year appropriation when made available, and may include other funding if available from other fiscal years toward project proposals received in response to this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO). This announcement is available on the FTA website at: https:// www.transit.dot.gov. Additionally, a synopsis of the funding opportunity, FTA-2019-004-TPM-TRTR, will be posted in the FIND module of the government-wide electronic grants website at https:// www.grants.gov. The program is located in the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) under 20.509.

The Federal Transit Administration's (FTA) Integrated Mobility Innovation (IMI) Demonstration program's primary purpose is to fund projects that demonstrate innovative, effective approaches, practices, partnerships, and technologies to enhance public transportation effectiveness, increase efficiency, expand quality, promote safety, and improve the traveler's experience. This notice announces the availability of up to $15 million in Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 and FY 2018 FTA research funds in the form of cooperative agreements for eligible projects. FTA may award additional funds, if available. This IMI Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) brings together three distinct areas of inquiry: Mobility on Demand (MOD) Sandbox demonstrations; FTA's Strategic Transit Automation Research (STAR); and Mobility Payment Integration (MPI). These areas are integrated in this NOFO to allow applicants to comprehensively plan multiple areas of mobility research. FTA requests that all applicants identify the specific area(s) for which they are applying. The Integrated Mobility Innovation Demonstration program will also leverage FTA's leadership of the Accessible Transportation Technologies Research Initiative (ATTRI) to ensure that all activities conducted under this NOFO advance the vision of a Complete Trip for All. The Complete Trip concept reflects the understanding that a person's travel comprises a chain of steps beginning with an often-spontaneous decision to make a trip, through to planning an itinerary, traversing the built environment and its transportation networks (with or without a vehicle); navigating streets, intersections, facilities, stations, and stops to their destinationsafely, efficiently, and carefree. The Complete Trip is the realization that if any part of the trip-making chain is broken, the trip cannot be completed, and an opportunity is lost.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Capital Metro) of Austin, Texas issue this early scoping notice to advise other agencies and the public that they intend to conduct early scoping for the Blue Line High Capacity Transit (HCT) Corridor. The Blue Line HCT Corridor is a 15.5- mile corridor connecting multiple activity centers between North Austin, Downtown Austin, East Riverside and the Austin Bergstrom International Airport. The entire corridor is being proposed for HCT dedicated pathways. This notice invites public input to ongoing planning efforts for the Blue Line HCT Corridor by commenting on the project's purpose and need, the project study area, alternatives being considered, public participation and outreach methods, relevant transportation and community impacts and benefits being considered, potential environmental impacts, and the projected capital and operating costs of the project.

This notice provides information on proposed changes and clarifications to the National Transit Database (NTD) reporting requirements. All proposed changes and clarifications will be effective for report year 2019 (beginning September 2019).

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.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announces the opportunity to apply for $30 million in Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 Section 5307 Urbanized Area Formula Program funds (Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance #20.507) authorized for competitively selected passenger ferry projects. As required by Federal public transportation law and subject to appropriations, funds will be awarded competitively to designated recipients or eligible direct recipients of Section 5307 funds to assist in the financing of capital projects to support existing passenger ferry service, establish new ferry service, and to repair and modernize ferry boats, terminals, and related facilities and equipment. FTA may award additional funding made available to the program prior to the announcement of project selections.

This notice announces final environmental action taken by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) for a project in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin. The purpose of this notice is to announce publicly the environmental decision by FTA on the subject project and to activate the limitation on any claims that may challenge this final environmental action.

This notice announces final environmental action taken by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) for a project in New York City, New York. The purpose of this notice is to announce publicly the environmental decision by FTA on the subject project and to activate the limitation on any claims that may challenge this final environmental action.

This final rule amends FHWA and FTA regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and Section 4(f) requirements. In addition, through this final rule, FRA is joining those regulations, making them FRA's NEPA and Section 4(f) implementing regulations. The FHWA, FRA and FTA (hereafter collectively referred to as ``the Agencies'') modified the NEPA and Section 4(f) regulations to reflect various provisions of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) and the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act. The Agencies have also revised the Environmental Impact and Related Procedures regulations to reflect various procedural changes, such as including a new section on combined final environmental impact statement/record of decision documents, and to improve readability and reflect current practice. This final rule also amends the Parks, Recreation Areas, Wildlife and Waterfowl Refuges, and Historic Sites regulations to reflect new exceptions created by the FAST Act.

This notice announces final environmental action taken by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority New York City Transit (MTA NYCT) Canarsie Tunnel Project Alternative Service Plan (ASP), in New York City, New York. The purpose of this notice is to announce publicly the environmental decision by FTA on the subject project and to activate the limitation on any claims that may challenge this final environmental action.

This rulemaking rescinds the regulation implementing the requirement for recipients to conduct a cost-effectiveness analysis before leasing public transportation equipment or facilities with Federal transit funds. The requirement to conduct a cost-effectiveness analysis was rescinded by statute in 2015.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is soliciting expressions of interest for the Expedited Project Delivery Pilot Program (Pilot Program) authorized by the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act (FAST). The Pilot Program is aimed at expediting delivery of new fixed guideway capital projects, small starts projects, or core capacity improvement projects that utilize public-private partnerships, are planned to be operated and maintained by employees of an existing public transportation provider, and have a Federal share not exceeding 25 percent of the project cost. It is also aimed at increasing innovation, improving efficiency and timeliness of project implementation, and encouraging new revenue streams. The law specifies that not more than eight projects can be awarded grants under the Pilot Program. FTA intends to work with selected project sponsors to further define the steps that must be completed before a construction grant can be awarded under the Pilot Program, including expedited FTA reviews of technical capacity, local financial commitment, and project justification. This announcement is available on the FTA's website at: www.transit.dot.gov/funding/grants/expedited-project-delivery -capital- investment-grants-pilot-3005b.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announces the re- establishment of the Transit Advisory Committee for Safety (TRACS) via a new charter. TRACS is a 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 the Administrator of FTA on matters relating to the safety of public transportation systems. This charter will be effective for two years from the date it is filed with Congress.