Rail Safety Oversight Program Standard

The State Safety Oversight (SSO) program is a federal-state partnership where the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) certifies state agencies to oversee the safety of federally funded rail transit systems. The WSDOT SSO program establishes safety program standards, requires transit agencies to develop safety plans, conducts triennial audits, investigates safety events, conducts risk-based inspections and ensures corrective actions are implemented. SSOs are also responsible for annually reporting their oversight activities to the FTA.

As required by the FTA, the Public Transportation Division is responsible for the WSDOT SSO program. This program oversees the safety of light rail in Washington State by ensuring rail agencies identify, understand and mitigate safety risks. This includes:

• Regular safety meetings with rail agencies to go over safety events, injuries, audits, emerging risks, hazard assessments and corrective actions.
• Monitoring trends in vehicle and pedestrian safety events to inform corrective action plans.
• Auditing rail agency safety plans every three years to ensure deficiencies are identified and mitigated.

The Washington State Rail Safety Oversight Program Standard (PDF 3.3MB) sets clear expectations and obligations for the WSDOT SSO program and the rail transit agencies it oversees. The program standard contains requirements for rail transit agencies in Washington State, including accident notification, corrective action plans and oversight of internal safety reviews. The program standard also clarifies how the SSO team works with rail transit agencies to accomplish activities such as investigations, risk-based inspections and federally mandated triennial audits. The Washington State Rail Safety Oversight Program Standard includes nine sections required under 49 CFR 674.27.