Answer:

All training supported by the FTA grant must be related to developing or carrying out a State’s SSO program under MAP-21, and each State should clearly demonstrate how each training course proposed in its grant does this. FTA will approve the training activities through the grant application process.
FTA encourages each SSO Agency (SSOA) to develop and implement a training plan that identifies skill gaps and appropriate training to fill those gaps. In particular, FTA encourages States to focus training activities on Safety Management System (SMS) training, which will be offered by FTA, and technical training related to the operating conditions of the rail transit systems the State oversees.
Eligible training may be offered by the US Department of Transportation’s Transportation Safety Institute, the National Transit Institute, post-secondary institutions, non-profit organizations, industry organizations, or other third-party providers. The training program does not have a post-secondary degree-seeking purpose, and as noted above, all training funded through this grant must be related to developing or carrying out a State’s SSO program under MAP-21. Thus, FTA does not anticipate that such degrees will be a typical result of training funded by the grant.
FTA is developing an interim safety certification training program, as required under 49 U.S.C. 5329(c), that may provide further guidance on eligible training activities. Once established, this interim program will become the basis for determining eligible training activities in future funding years. FTA expects to publish a proposed interim program for comment in Spring 2014.

Answer:

For the FTA Employment Practice Assessment for veteran hiring and promotions (Circular Section 2.2.6), use the Department of Labor definition for "eligible veteran" found at 38 U.S.C. Section 4211(4). It reads:

(4) The term ‘‘eligible veteran’’ means a person who—

(A) served on active duty for a period of more than 180 days and was discharged or released therefrom with other than a dishonorable discharge;

(B) was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability;

(C) as a member of a reserve component under an order to active duty pursuant to section 12301(a), (d), or (g), 12302, or 12304 of title 10, served on active duty during a period of war or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge is authorized and was discharged or released from such duty with other than a dishonorable discharge; or

(D) was discharged or released from active duty by reason of a sole survivorship discharge (as that term is defined in section 1174(i) of title 10).

Answer:

FTA decided to set aside $50 million of the overall $330 million appropriation for latent damages and other emergency-related expenses from Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria that may arise in the future.

Answer:

Project-specific EJ analysis is conducted as part of a NEPA document. Therefore, if the NEPA document needs to be updated (e.g., when there are project changes that have the potential for significant environmental impacts, or a significant project change which was not analyzed previously), the EJ analysis should be reviewed to confirm that there are no new impacts to the EJ population that would be considered disproportionately high and adverse. FTA will re-evaluate the EJ analysis to determine whether additional EJ analysis is required.

Answer:

If an applicant believes the FTA HMCE analysis tool does not capture all of the resilience benefits of a proposed project, the applicant should provide additional information in the qualitative benefits section of the HMCE tool, which is located beneath the projects apparent benefit cost ratio (BCR). Other benefits may also be quantified by an applicant and submitted separately, however, in such a case the applicant must submit a highly detailed explanation of how and why the alternative analysis differs from the HMCE tool. FTA will carefully scrutinize the justification, as well as the procedures and methodology provided together with the results of the HMCE tool.

Answer:

Automated rail fixed-guideway systems are excluded from the research plan because automation is a fairly mature technology in those systems, use different technologies, and operate under a different set of parameters from bus transit (i.e. dedicated rail lines). There is a greater need for transit bus automation research because it lags behind rail transit automation in deployment readiness. Public transit using rubber-tired vehicles covers a larger set of operational service types (e.g., circulator, feeder, local, express, bus rapid transit, demand response, etc.), serves a wider population and geographic area than rail, and requires less infrastructure. The purpose of the strategic research plan is to establish a path forward for developing automation in a shared environment, which has a higher degree of complexity as well as a larger area for growth. Automating bus transit can greatly improve mobility across the population, but also has challenges that need to be addressed prior to widespread implementation. The strategic research plan aims to address these challenges and facilitate adoption of automation technology by transit providers.

Answer:

The bulk of the appropriation, $277.525 million, is being allocated today to Florida, Georgia, Puerto Rico, Texas, and the U.S. Virgin Islands for response, recovery, rebuilding, and resiliency projects. It is standard practice for FTA Emergency Relief Program funds to be delivered in multiple allocations, to allow affected grantees appropriate time to evaluate their needs and to assess damages.

As authorized by the appropriating legislation, a small amount of the funding ($2.475 million) will go toward administrative and oversight expenses.

Answer:

FTA has the discretion to permit a recipient to use Section 5324 Emergency Relief Program funds to support a limited competition procurement.Pursuant to FTA’s authorizing statute at 49 U.S.C. § 5325(a), an FTA recipient is required to use FTA funds to support project activities using full and open competition. A recipient may conduct a sole source procurement in very limited circumstances under the Common Grant Rule at 49 C.F.R. Part 18.36. A recipient does not have explicit authority, by law, to conduct a limited competition procurement.Notwithstanding this framework, FTA has the discretionary authority under 49 C.F.R. Part 601, Subpart D to waive its requirements through the Emergency Relief Docket in cases involving national or regional emergencies and disasters. Given this authority, FTA will entertain requests for emergency relief waivers from FTA’s full and open competition requirement, and FTA will consider requests to approve limited competition procurements. To be clear, a request for a waiver is not a guarantee of a waiver. FTA maintains the discretion to grant or deny a waiver request.If a recipient is interested in pursuing a limited competition procurement, then it must obtain an emergency relief waiver of FTA’s full and open competition requirement pursuant to 49 C.F.R. Part 601, Subpart D and FTA’s Federal Register Notice of Establishment of Emergency Relief Docket for Calendar Year 2013 dated February 15, 2013 (available at www.regulations.gov, docket number FTA-2013-0001). A request for a waiver should be addressed to the Administrator, and it should contain a compelling justification and any relevant supporting documentation as to why a waiver should be granted. The recipient should upload its request into the Emergency Relief Docket. FTA will process the request in accordance with 49 C.F.R. Part 601, Subpart D. A recipient may not award a limited competition contract supported by Section 5324 Emergency Relief Program funds prior to FTA’s written approval.FTA strongly recommends that recipients submit requests for waivers as early as practicable in the procurement process. A recipient should submit such a request at the time it determines the best strategy is a limited competition procurement. Recipients should not assume that waiver requests will be granted.

Answer:

Yes. It is expected that the majority of active grants currently in TEAM will be migrated over to TrAMS. Therefore you do not need to close out all active grants prior to TrAMS; we expect active TEAM grants will be closed out in the future in the new TrAMS system.

Answer:

It is not anticipated that there will be an upload feature to import applications. FTA is exploring upload functionality, but is not anticipated at go-live. (Revised 5/20/2015)

Answer:

Yes. TrAMS will work well with the following common browsers: Internet Explorer (for the best user experience, a version higher than 8 is optimal, but you can still use prior versions), Firefox, Safari, and Chrome. It is anticipated to function correctly on mobile devices including iPhone, iPad, Blackberries, and Android devices. (Revised 1/2015)

Answer:

Yes. However, TEAM is only expected to remain available for a defined period of time; the duration has yet to be determined. TEAM will remain open for those with active TEAM accounts and the information will be read-only and individuals will not be able to apply for grants report on grants, or perform any other functions in TEAM.