Rail project’s safety program gets federal approval

The Federal Transit Administration said Monday that Hawaii has received approval of a key safety program for the rail project ahead of a federal deadline.

Federal law requires that by April 2019 states with rail transit systems in the engineering or construction phase of development or in operation obtain certification from the FTA for what’s known as State Safety Oversight Programs. After the deadline the FTA will be prohibited from awarding any new federal transit funds to a state until certification is obtained.

FTA Acting Administrator K. Jane Williams said in a statement that Hawaii is among the first states to achieve the certification, along with Massachusetts, Minnesota, Ohio, Utah and the District of Columbia.

To achieve the certification, a safety oversight program has to meet several requirements, including establishing a safety agency that is financially and legally independent from the rail transit agency it oversees, and ensuring the program has investigatory authority.

The state Department of Transportation is responsible for providing safety oversight of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation.

“Getting this certification so early demonstrates the state’s commitment to the safety of our existing public transit programs and oversight of HART’s project and operations,” Gov. David Ige said in a statement.

A bill being considered by the state Legislature would divert a portion of the rail project’s tax stream to the state Department of Transportation for safety oversight of rail. House Bill 2403 would “credit” the DOT an unspecified amount each year (a previous version of the bill pegged it at $500,000) from the .5 percent general excise tax surcharge and the portion of transient accommodations tax revenues earmarked for rail.