Rail Transit: Reliability of FTA's Rail Accident Database Page: 1 of 10
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SGAO
Accountability * Integrity * Reliability
United States Government Accountability Office
Washington, DC 20548
January 31, 2011
The Honorable Tim Johnson
Chairman
The Honorable Richard C. Shelby
Ranking Member
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
United States Senate
Subject: Rail Transit: Reliability of FTA's Rail Accident Database
At the request of the former chairman of the committee and Senator Shelby, we
conducted a review of challenges associated with enhancing safety on major rail
transit systems.' During the course of that review, we assessed the quality of data that
the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) collects and maintains in its State Safety
Oversight (SSO) Rail Accident Database. FTA, an agency within the Department of
Transportation (DOT), collects these safety data, including data on types of accidents
and causes, from SSO agencies and the rail transit agencies they oversee.2 FTA used
the SSO Rail Accident Database to produce the agency's 2009 Rail Safety Statistics
Report, which analyzed data from 2003 through 2008.3 Although we originally intended
to report on safety trends using the SSO Rail Accident Database in the rail transit
report, we determined that these data were not sufficiently reliable for such a
purpose. As a result, in this review we further assess the SSO Rail Accident Database
and FTA's processes for collecting and compiling the data. We determined that there
are numerous inaccuracies in FTA's SSO Rail Accident Database and, consequently,
the 2009 Rail Safety Statistics Report. FTA implemented changes to the data
collection process over the past few years to address some of these issues. For
example, FTA now requires SSO agencies to report incident specific information
instead of aggregated or summary totals. In addition, FTA revised the definition of
rail grade crossings to ensure consistent accident reporting by rail transit agencies,
and now requests SSO agencies to provide unique incident tracking numbers to assist
with data validation and prevention of duplicate entries. FTA is also working to
validate and correct existing data in the SSO Rail Accident Database. Despite these
'GAO, Rail Transit: FTA Programs are Helping to Address Transit Agencies' Safety Challenges, but
Improved Performance Goals and Measures Could Better Focus Efforts, GAO-11-199 (Washington,
D.C.: Jan. 31, 2011).
2Through the State Safety Oversight Program, FTA monitors 27 state agencies that oversee the safety
and security of rail fixed guideway systems in 26 states. See 49 C.F.R. part 659. One state, Illinois, has
two oversight agencies, each overseeing a different rail transit agency.
3DOT, FTA, 2009 Rail Safety Statistics Report (Washington, D.C: 2010).GAO-11-217R FTA Rail Safety Data Reliability
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United States. Government Accountability Office. Rail Transit: Reliability of FTA's Rail Accident Database, text, January 31, 2011; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc299482/m1/1/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.