49 CFR Parts 37 and 38 -- Transportation for Individuals With Disabilities at Intercity, Commuter, and High Speed Passenger Railroad Station Platforms; Miscellaneous Amendments, Preamble

Expansion of Key Station Requirements

NPRM and Comments

The NPRM asked whether requirements to retrofit stations for accessibility should be extended to include stations not originally designated as key stations (e.g., stations that, because of changes in land use, had become higher passenger volume stations than they were in 1991). Disability community commenters and one transportation provider stated that all existing stations should be made accessible or, at least, that if an existing station began to meet key station criteria (e.g., because of changes in usage patterns or in the configuration of a rail system), that station should be added to the list of key stations and modified to make it accessible. Most transportation providers either said that a requirement to this effect was unnecessary or that retrofitting additional stations for accessibility was a decision that should be made locally.

DOT Response

In the Department's view, the ADA does not provide a statutory basis for requiring the expansion of the list of key stations, renovation of which for accessibility was to have been completed within a stated amount of time after the statute became effective. By incorporating the key station concept, the ADA clearly did not take the view that all existing stations in pre-ADA systems had to be retrofitted. The Department agrees with transit industry commenters who said that local decisions to react to changes in a system, plus the requirement to make alterations to stations in an accessible way, should be sufficient.