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On Friday, the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) held the first meeting of the Transit Rail Advisory Committee for Safety (TRACS), an advisory group designed to guide Federal Transit Administration (FTA) safety rule making if the Obama Administration’s Public Transportation Safety Program Act of 2009 becomes law.

FTA currently is prohibited from directly overseeing transit agency safety programs and issuing safety regulations and standards. The Public Transportation Safety Program Act of 2009 would authorize the USDOT to establish federal safety standards for rail transit systems, reversing a prohibition that has been in effect since 1964.

TRACS was created in response to a series of transit accidents in Chicago, Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Boston that raised concern over the safety of rail transit passengers and employees, FTA officials said in a prepared statement.

The advisory group is charged with analyzing transit safety issues and developing recommendations for minimum national transit safety standards.