FTA Update Highlights Safety Priorities, Importance of Partnerships

At the “FTA Update” General session of APTA’s 2026 Mobility Conference in Salt Lake City, officials discussed transportation funding and emphasized the importance of partnerships.

It was a theme begun by Leanne Redden, APTA chair and executive director, Chicago Regional Transportation Authority, who introduced the session. “APTA and FTA have had a long and highly productive partnership … and we share a mutual commitment to advancing safe, accessible, and modern public transportation services,” she said. “We all have stories about our collaboration with FTA staff to address a challenge, meet a grant requirement, or even just provide advice and counsel on a proposed rule.”

Mark Bathrick, Acting Associate Administrator, Office of Program Management, echoed the thought when discussing the $14.6 billion available in 2026 apportionments, saying “We are not transit providers. Our job here is to help support the delivery of public transportation.”

For FY26, millions of dollars are designated for ferries, buses and low/no-emissions vehicles, rail, transit-oriented development, and many innovation and safety projects.

Safety has benefited significantly from FTA partnerships. Joseph DeLorenzo, Associate Administrator for Transit Safety and Oversight, Chief Safety Officer, said various safety projects, including incident data collection from transit partners, have led to a decrease in reported assaults on drivers last year—a first in the past eight years.

However, fatigue incidents have increased in the past five years. Safety needs to be a company-wide priority, DeLorenzo said, and “The place to start… is how you are communicating with your employees about their fitness when they come to work every day. Open communication within your organization on all safety issues, but particularly on fatigue… is key.”

Moderator Connor Torossian, Associate Administrator for Communications and Congressional Affairs, agreed, adding that FTA is working on making safety information in the National Transit Database more understandable to all users, and would be asking for feedback from agencies soon.

Maryam Allahyar Wyrick, PhD, Associate Administrator, Office of Research & Innovation, said the Safety Research Demonstration program will mitigate existing rail hazards and build on FRA research, such as “machine vision, AI, as well as automated track inspection, and see how that would fit into transit as well.”

To help partner agencies make the most of funding opportunities, David Beckhouse, Region 8 Acting Administrator, described a series of videos to help grant applicants navigate the TrAMS system, and toolkits for mega-events.

View more images from the Mobility Conference and International Bus Roadeo.