FTA Reminds States of Deadline for SSO Certification
The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) in the United States has issued a reminder to the governments of 30 States with rail transit systems under their jurisdiction that the deadline for obtaining certification of their State Safety Oversight (SSO) Programs is 15 April 2019.
The agency has also warned States that this deadline refers to the receipt of certification, not the submission of applications. Thus, it is possible that applications submitted after 30 September 2018 might not be certified by the deadline. Under US federal law there are no circumstances in which the deadline can be extended for any state.
SSO programmes are intended to facilitate more efficient oversight of the safety of rail transit by state transit agencies independently of the FTA. The law also dictates that no provider of transit services in any state can receive funding for rail transit from the FTA until the State in which it is operating has been awarded SSO certification.
The FTA has published a table which shows the position of all states in the certification process; as of April 2018 only 8 of the 30 states which require SSO certification have received final approval of their programmes.
The FTA has also produced a fact sheet and a toolkit to assist states in the completion and submission of their applications.
