School Bus Transportation News at STN Media

FTA Clarifies Tripper Service Regulations

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Following more than two years of negotiations with the National School Transportation Association, the Federal Transit Administration released a brochure in mid-January describing the appropriate use of public mass transit for school transportation.

Known as tripper service, the use of public mass transit buses for school bus service was first defined in the St. Germain Amendment of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1973. The regulation is designed to prevent FTA grantees from competing against private school bus operators, if private contractors are available.

In 1999, the FTA issued a notice of proposed rulemaking to clarify St. Germain. Among the proposed changes, FTA sought to explain that transit buses providing tripper service are prohibited from displaying signage on the transit bus indicating that students are on board, and that such buses can only stop at bus stops that are available to the general public. The Bush Administration withdrew the proposal a couple of months ago in light of industry comments and feedback that it said indicated that "no regulatory clarification is necessary."

Instead, the Administration published a straight-forward brochure. Contained in a Jan. 19 "Dear Colleague Letter" from Jenna Dorn, administrator of the FTA, it details the p ermissible use of public transportation for school bus service, per 49 CFR Part 605. The regulation states that no entity receiving FTA grants can provide transportation for students and school personnel if that transportation excludes the general public or competes with private school bus operators. The documents were developed in lieu of the 1999 NPRM.

Both the brochure and letter can be found on the FTA's website. They have also been distributed to all public mass transit agencies.

The brochure centers on 12 commonly-asked questions regarding what is allowed under tripper service. For example, the regulations apply to field trips and other school activities but not to human service programs such as Head Start, or when there are no willing or able private charter operators to provide such services as special needs transportation. Transit buses engaged in tripper service may also stop directly in front of a school, but only when the stop is accessible to the public and clearly marked like all other stops.

The FTA also lists guidance on the availability and cost of using private school bus operators in urban areas and public notification and hearing requirements for the application process.

Click here to download the brochure. (This is a large PDF file and may take a while to download.)