FTA finalizes controversial interpretation of transit funding rules

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has finalized a proposed policy statement on public transit “tripper service,” which is open to the general public but which also accommodates the needs of students. Background on the proposal is at the second link below. The Federal-Aid Highway Act provides financial assistance to public transportation operations, provided they do not provide exclusive school bus operations to students. FTA issued its proposed policy statement on tripper service and “exclusive” school bus operations in response to a recent ruling by a U.S. district court in New York that allowed a public transportation provider to operate an additional 240 school bus routes. The court reasoned that because members of the public could ride a bus on these new routes, the routes were not “exclusive school bus operations.” FTA feared that the court’s interpretation could allow a transit provider to “restructure … its operations dramatically to accommodate the needs of a local school district and its students, thereby displacing private school bus operators and their employees, provided the system keeps the service technically open to the public.” Therefore, in what groups including NSBA have criticized as contrary to the plain meaning of the statute, FTA will look to the act’s legislative history and purpose to interpret “exclusive school bus operations” to include service that a reasonable person would conclude was primarily designed to accommodate students and school personnel and only incidentally to serve the general public. FTA also defines “tripper service” as it “has been defined historically,” to include modifications to fare collection and the frequency of service and truly de minimus route alterations to make stops at or near schools. This final policy statement was effective September 16, 2008. However, FTA also “expects to issue expeditiously a notice of proposed rulemaking to provide clearer definitions of ‘tripper service’ and ‘school bus operations,’ as well as generally to update the existing school bus regulation.”

73 Fed. Reg. 53,384 (Sept. 16, 2008)
FTA final policy statement
NSBA School Law pages on “tripper” service regulations