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Appendix D
PTSB SSO Program Description and General Procedures
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PTSB – Description The Public Transportation Safety Board (PTSB) was created in 1984 and is the first board of its kind in the nation. The PTSB is statutorily responsible for the safety oversight of all public transportation systems operating in New York State that receive State Transit Operating Assistance (STOA) funding. The State established the PTSB within the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT). The mission of the PTSB is to reduce the number, rate and severity of public transportation accidents. The PTSB has broad, legislatively mandated powers to enable it to fulfill its mission, including:
Establishing accident reporting, investigation and analysis procedures Conducting comprehensive accident investigations Taking a proactive role in public safety by reviewing, approving and monitoring system
safety program plans submitted by each public transportation system Conducting system safety program field audits Analyzing critical safety issues and concerns Recommending the establishment of new safety legislation, rules and regulations, and
transportation system procedures based on accident investigations, special studies and audits
Since 1984, the PTSB has investigated more than 2,400 bus and rail accidents and issued approximately 2,500 recommendations to bus and rail properties to improve safety. The areas addressed by the recommendations have included: management oversight, bus driver training, bus and rail vehicle designs, maintenance procedures to ensure supervisory and mechanic accountability, commitment of capital resources to improve safety deficiencies, emergency communications, highway grade crossing gates and approaches, preventative maintenance procedures, rail tracks and signals, subway tunnel ventilation, emergency plans and procedures, and train operator hours of service and fatigue. The PTSB Board includes the following members:
Paul A. Karas, Acting Commissioner of NYSDOT, Chair of the PTSB Sam Zhou, Chair Designee Clifford Thomas, NYSDOT, Executive Director to the PTSB Dennis Fitzgerald, Former Director of the Capital District Transportation Authority Daniel J. Texeira, Board Member Barry Kluger, Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Inspector General One vacant position.
The PTSB's commitment for working with New York's public transportation systems proactively has led to a decreasing trend in serious public transportation accidents and made New York a leader in transportation safety performance.
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If you would like additional information about the PTSB or wish to report an unsafe public transportation condition involving buses, subways, commuter railroads or light rail systems, please contact the PTSB by telephoning (518) 485-2449 or writing to: Public Transportation Safety Board 50 Wolf Road, Pod 53 Albany, NY 12232 The PTSB State Safety Oversight (SSO) Program The PTSB Executive Director and Staff are a part of the Rail Safety & Intermodal Security Bureau, which is one of five Modal Safety & Security departments within the NYSDOT, see Figure D-1. The Rail Safety & Intermodal Security Bureau is led by Mr. Clifford Thomas, Director, who also serves on the PTSB as the Executive Director. This Bureau consists of the Rail Safety Program, led by Mr. Robert Montgomery as Director and consists of two individual groups, see Figure D-2. The Freight & Inner City Rail Safety Section is also led by Mr. Robert Montgomery and consists of 12 state rail inspectors with training credentials from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). This group is responsible for all railroad accident investigations, audits, and inspections for the freight railroads and the passenger and commuter railroads (such as Amtrak operations, MTA Long Island Railroad, and MTA Metro North Railroad). The inspector staff typically perform random safety inspections of rail equipment, infrastructure, hazardous material (cargo tanks) and rail operating practices. The inspectors are based throughout the state and can be temporarily reassigned as needed to respond to rail accidents and incidents within New York for either FRA regulated rail or transit rail at the direction of the Rail Safety Program Director or NYSDOT management. These FRA-qualified inspectors are planned to be used, as needed, for the PTSB SSO program audits and inspections on occasion. For example, three of these inspectors were used for the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA) triennial audit in 2018. In addition, the FRA qualified inspectors have supported the PTSB SSO program in investigation of at least one derailment at NFTA. No specific level of effort has been planned for this group as part of the PTSB SSO program; however, they are available should they be needed for supporting investigations, audits, or inspections. The Transit & Commuter Rail Safety Section (State Safety Oversight) is led by Ms. Tina LaBello and Mr. Brian Galvin, both are SSO Program Managers. This Section has staff in the main NYSDOT office in Albany and in New York City (Queens – Long Island City). There are 9 managers and staff in this Section, focused on rail safety oversight of the two rail transit agencies (RTAs) in the state – MTA New York City Transit (NYCT), including Staten Island Railroad (SIR) and the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA) Metro Rail system in Buffalo. Two of the investigators were just hired and started in September 2018. The vacant position for the transit analyst is planned to be filled as soon as it is released. The PTSB SSO program includes an estimated 7.6 full time equivalent staff assigned to its operation.
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The PTSB SSO program also has extended staff from a contractor team led by Vital Assurance Ltd. and includes K&J Safety and Security and ADS Systems. This contractor team has an estimated 5 full time equivalent staff assigned to its operation. A listing of the Vital Assurance team is shown in Figure D-3. Contractor team staff currently providing technical support are indicated, and several more staff will be involved as the planning phase for development of the SSO program is completed. Based on the size and complexity of MTA NYCT, it is important to note that the PTSB SSO program could provide a surge capacity of staff that includes 21 NYSDOT staff and 25 contractor staff, all qualified in providing rail system safety oversight.
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Figure D-1. High Level NYSDOT Organization Chart
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Figure D-2. NYSDOT Rail Safety Bureau Organization Chart
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* Currently providing technical support Figure D-3. PTSB SSO Program Contractor Team Staff
Vital Assurance Kevin Chandler, Program Manager* Josh Gearhardt, Deputy Program Manager* Ryan McKinley* Brian Kummerer* Donald Eldredge* John Fedikovich* Jonathan Luedeke
K&J Safety and Security Consulting
James Tucci* James Dougherty* John Morro* Elisa Nichols Michael Flanigon Lawson Narvell Robert Brinson Timothy Pernie
ADS System Safety Consulting
Ron Edwards* Kurt Wilkinson* Jason Sergent* Eloy Recio Aaron Meyers Christopher Gaines Dominique Fisher Kahlil Allen Mark Davis Charlie Gamble
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PTSB SSO Program Team Contact Information New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) Rail Safety Bureau NYSDOT Headquarters 50 Wolf Road Albany, NY 12232 NYSDOT Region 11 Hunters Point Plaza (Queens) 47-40 21st Street Long Island City, NY 11101 Clifford A. Thomas Director, Rail Safety Bureau (518) 457-7475 [email protected] Robert Montgomery Chief, Rail Inspection & Accident Investigation (518) 485-7770 [email protected] Tina LaBello SSO Program Manager (518) 457-9533 Cell: (518) 903-5695 [email protected] Brian Galvin SSO Program Manager (518) 485-8928 Cell: (518) 937-4474 [email protected] Robert Maraldo Chief Accident Investigator (718) 482-4086 Cell: (917) 763-1259 [email protected] David Hess Investigator/Auditor (631) 952-6890 [email protected]
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Nicholas Bloomingdale Investigator/Auditor (518) 485-0521 [email protected] Jim Patterson Investigator/Auditor [email protected] Sherard John Investigator/Auditor [email protected] Joseph P. Degeilh Investigator/Auditor (516) 659-3598 [email protected] Kevin Chandler Contractor Team Lead (614) 946-3845 [email protected]
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PTSB SSO Program General Procedures The General Procedures included as part of this appendix have been developed in addition to related processes and procedures described in the SSOPS and appendices. These procedures are intended to formalize existing activities and procedures in order to address expectations from FTA and the enhanced PTSB SSO program based on the new SSO rule (49 CFR Part 674). The following procedures are described here and then available in separate downloadable files.
SSO-001. Program Standard Update Procedure – this procedure explains timing and philosophy of updates for the program standard. Updates of actual policy in the body of the SSOPS will require approval and sign-offs from all of the program participants. However, an administrative or minor change to the body of the SSOPS will be notified and no approvals will be necessary. In addition, appendices of the SSOPS will be updated at will, and only a simple review and concurrence process is required. The timing of these updates will be based on program need, changes to FTA regulations, and changes required based on external audits of the PTSB SSO program. Each December, a check for any needed updates of the SSOPS will be made, as required by FTA.
SSO-002. Conflict of Interest (COI) Review Procedure – this procedure explains the identification of potential PTSB SSO program conflicts of interest (COI), review of these potential COIs, and the determination and documentation of decision-making based on the review of the potential COIs. An example of the use of this potential COI process will be when NYSDOT is involved in providing grant funding to NYCT or NFTA related to the rail systems. This procedure also includes a template form to capture the potential COI and any decisions and notes from the review of that potential COI. Completed template forms will become formal records to be tracked as part of the PTSB SSO program.
SSO-003. Event Notification Procedure – this procedure provides instructions to the New York RTAs for reportable events that occur at the RTAs and must be notified to the PTSB SSO program. This procedure also includes a general description of each of the RTA’s rail systems and vehicles as information.
SSO-004. Enforcement Escalation Procedure – this procedure explains the process that the PTSB SSO program will use to track potential unmitigated safety (or security) risk at the New York RTAs and interactions with the RTAs to assure that these potential unmitigated safety (or security) risks are appropriately addressed. The focus for this procedure is on how the PTSB SSO program will escalate this type of situation if there are disagreements or a lack of responsiveness from the New York RTAs. This escalation of enforcement might provide a remedy through the New York Attorney General’s office should a New York RTA be unresponsive to resolution issues required by the PTSB SSO program.
SSO-005. Annual Program Status Report Development Procedure – this procedure provides a process for developing and completing the annual program status report. The procedure includes a scope and outline for this annual report as well as the review and approval process to be followed. Ultimately, this report is required to be delivered
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annually to the FTA, Governor of the State of New York, and the boards of directors (or equivalent) of each of the New York RTAs.
SSO-006. Annual Data Submission De-identification Procedure – this procedure explains the process and requirements for the RTA event investigations, internal audits, and corrective action plans (CAPs) data and information to be de-identified, coded, and delivered to the FTA on an annual or as-needed/periodic basis. The focus of this procedure is assuring that the data and information provided to the FTA is both responsive to FTA’s requirements while at the same time not providing any sensitive or personally specific information that is not necessary to meet the FTA’s requirements.
SSO-007. Annual Hazard Data Reporting Procedure – This procedure provides scope for collecting Hazard data from the New York RTAs as currently required by FTA under Part 659. Hazard data are to be collected monthly from the New York RTAs. Data include state only reportable events (defined in SSO-003), hazard log data, and daily incident logs (red signal violations, broken rail/kinks, railcar braking failures, near misses with automobiles/pedestrians, and door faults/doors opening wrong side). Additional hazard related data will continue to be collected from the New York RTAs to support risk monitoring. Hazard data submission will follow requirements in SSO-006.
SSO-008. Rail Transit Agency (RTA) Safety Oversight and Enforcement Risk Monitoring Procedure – This procedure explains the process and requirements for the activities that make up the PTSB SSO program risk monitoring of the New York RTAs. Risk Monitoring is a process used to address safety oversight and enforcement of a transit agency’s Safety Management System (SMS) Safety Assurance (and some aspects of Safety Risk Management) activities.
SSO-009. Investigation for Allegations of Rail Transit Agency (RTA) Noncompliance with Agency Safety Plan (ASP) Procedure (including public input) – This procedure addresses receipt of allegations of RTA noncompliance with their ASP from others such as the public, patrons, employees, Safety Department, SSO Program FTA, or others. The PTSB SSO program also uses this procedure for addition of investigations beyond those required by FTA for accidents as state reportable events.
Please note that any reference to SSO-010 focused on investigations should have been deleted. The PTSB SSO program safety event investigations are covered in SSOPS Appendix K.
