RTD to review proposed 2027 safety plan with new targets and reporting rules

The Regional Transportation District is scheduled to review a proposed 2027 safety plan Sept. 16 that would set performance targets for light rail, fixed-route buses and paratransit and revise how safety events are reported and investigated.

RTD’s Operations, Safety and Security Committee will review the plan before the agency’s Board of Directors considers it Sept. 22. The proposed 2027 Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan recommends board approval, but the scheduled meetings had not occurred as of Sept. 13.

The proposed targets include 36 major events and one fatality for light rail; 413 major events, one fatality and 143 injuries for fixed-route buses; and six major events, no fatalities and three injuries for non-fixed-route bus service, including Access-a-Ride. The plan also sets mode-specific rates for collisions, injuries, assaults on transit workers and vehicle miles between system failures.

Among its broader goals, the plan would set a combined bus-and-light-rail preventable safety-event rate below one per 100,000 miles and seek a 1% reduction in several categories of on-the-job injuries and lost-time days. The packet describes the targets as updates to three-year rolling averages reported to the National Transit Database.

The proposed procedures would require employees to report events immediately or as soon as reasonably practical. RTD would enter reports into its system within 24 hours when practicable, schedule a post-event meeting within 72 hours when applicable and generally complete investigations within 30 days. Investigation methods would vary by an event’s actual or potential severity.

The plan would align RTD’s accident and hazard terminology with Colorado Public Utilities Commission standards and establish a process for tracking corrective actions. RTD says adopting it would have no direct financial impact. If the board approves the plan, RTD says it would be signed by the general manager and chief executive officer and submitted to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission’s Rail and Transit Section for approval and certification to the Federal Transit Administration.