Federal role in transit rail safety debated

After a spate of high-profile accidents on the Washington-area Metro system, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood recently proposed legislation to make oversight of transit rail safety the responsibility of the federal government rather than the states.

Under current law, the Federal Transit Administration is prohibited from directly regulating the nation's public transit systems. Instead, they are regulated through the FTA's State Safety Oversight program, which calls for the states to set their own safety standards and implement rail safety oversight and audit programs to measure compliance. However, the legal authorities, budgets and staff levels of the various state oversight agencies vary widely across the country.

Recently, a group of experts debated the issue of what role the federal government should have at NationalJournal.com's Transportation blog.

Click here to read the full discussion