FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 8, 2022
GDOT TRIENNIAL AUDIT OF MARTA
FINDS STRONG COMMITMENT TO SAFETY, NO MAJOR SAFETY GAPS OR CONCERNS IDENTIFIED
ATLANTA – The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT)
2022 Triennial Safety Audit of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority
(MARTA) finds a strong commitment to safety and no major safety gaps or
concerns. The audit examined MARTA’s heavy and light rail departments including
operations and maintenance, training and communications, and equipment,
structures, and signals.
As required by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), MARTA
maintains and regularly updates an Agency Safety Plan and that plan, along with
Authority safety procedures and practices are audited every three years through
GDOT’s State Safety Oversight (SSO) program.
This year’s findings show a significant improvement in safety
practices in all areas, with only 20 deficiencies and 16 areas of concern
identified, compared to close to 100 such findings during the previous audit in
2019. A deficiency is defined as an item that doesn’t meet the established
safety criteria; an area of concern partially meets that criteria.
The audit found minimal public safety issues, the most pressing
being loose pavers on a walkway at Brookhaven rail station, which is currently
being addressed. Examples of other deficiencies include irregular monthly fire
extinguisher inspections and an unsecured parking lot panel access door at
Lindbergh rail station. The areas of concern identified include no
public-facing safety issues; a locked fire extinguisher cabinet at Avondale
Rail Yard among the dozen or so items that can be easily remediated.
“There is no greater responsibility as a transit agency than
ensuring the safety of our passengers and employees, every time and at every
point at which they interact with the system,” said MARTA General Manager and
CEO Collie Greenwood. “We successfully addressed and closed every item
identified in the previous audit and we will approach these most recent
findings with the same commitment.”
“MARTA takes a collaborative approach to managing safety,
everybody has an important role to play. This allows us to better control risk,
quickly detect and correct safety issues, and more precisely measure safety
performance,” said Chief Safety and Quality Assurance Officer Ralph McKinney.
MARTA will review the audit findings this month and
generate a Corrective Action Plan (CAP) for each item needing attention.
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