CTA Gets Perfect Score on Federal Regulatory Review

The CTA has announced that the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), the top federal oversight agency for transit agencies, gave the CTA a perfect score on its FTA Triennial Review and found no deficiencies across multiple categories and departments.

A perfect review of “zero findings of deficiencies” is the highest score attainable. The FTA awarded CTA a Certificate of Excellence following an exhaustive review process that included a team of FTA auditors conducting site visits and completing a comprehensive review of CTA procedures and policies in 17 key areas. The CTA has never before received a perfect review.

“When I joined CTA a year ago, I pledged to focus on enhancing safety and the customer experience. The FTA’s review is testament to the attention being paid by all CTA employees at all levels of the organization to the federal regulations mandated by the FTA,” said CTA President Dorval R. Carter, Jr. “It is very rare, especially for a transit agency of this size, to get a perfect score. The FTA’s strong assessment validates our strong commitment to not only comply with comprehensive safety and operational guidelines set by the federal government, but in many cases go above and beyond the minimum standards to provide the best, safest experience to our customers.”

Transit agencies that receive federal funding undergo an FTA review every three years. The review analyzes overall adherence to and compliance with FTA requirements, including the agency’s program, policies, procedures, administrative controls and financial management systems to determine how closely the agency is following statutory and regularly requirements. In these reviews, the FTA will issue findings in areas where it determines compliance is lacking.

The FTA and its auditors reviewed CTA’s compliance for 2013-2016 in 17 areas, including safety and security, accessibility, finance, maintenance and the agency's public input process.