REMARKS PREPARED FOR
DELIVERY BY
DEPUTY SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION MORTIMER DOWNEY
Y2K SURVIVAL WORKSHOP
HOUSTON, TEXAS
JANUARY 22, 1999
I'm so pleased to be here today. I want to thank the American Public Transit Association, the Federal Transit Admini stration and the Federal Railroad Administration for putting together this Y2K survival workshop. This is a timely conference, as there are only 344 days until the Year 2000 --but who's counting?
Actually, all of us are counting the days, the hours, and the seconds to December 31. It's not often that we face a problem that could affect every person and every mode of transportation. And while some individuals may be taking their "Y2K-survival" planning to the extreme, I can assure you I have no intention of purchasing a mule, stocking up on freeze-dried food, or putting my assets into gold. In fact, the only plan I have right now is to recharge my farecard in case there are some last minute gas lines.
We know the best way to prepare this country for the Year 2000 is by careful analysis, remediation, and testing of our systems and our equipment, and by developing and testing contingency plans for the safe and seamless continuity of business.
Each of us must do his or her part to prepare for Y2K, whether we are the largest federal agency or a small local service provider or a mom & pop business.
One reason I stress this is because the transportation system -- and indeed, all of our nation’s economy -- is an interdependent network. We need every one of your trains, buses, ferries, and paratransit services to run as smoothly on Saturday, January 1st as they will on Friday, December 31st. And we especially need you to be ready for the rush hour on Monday, January 3rd, when America goes back to work after a well-earned millennium celebration.
Your service will depend as much on your readiness as on that of your shippers, suppliers, vendors and contractors.
Another excellent reason for each of us to be Y2K ready is so that we can be able to help the others in our sector. Case studies, best practices, sample contingency plans -- all of these tools and information sharing will help bring the rest of the industry along toward compliance.
And let’s not forget the public. Our customers deserve to have confidence in the safety and efficiency of their transportation system -- everyday. Although January 1 falls on a Saturday, many people will still need to get to their jobs, to the hospital, to the grocery store and more. We can’t afford to have a lapse in service to our customers, the American citizens.
But you already know this -- that’s why you’re here today.
When I spoke at the APTA Annual meeting in New York last October, I noted that Y2K was much more a project management issue than a technological challenge. This is still true; the technological fixes are readily available. But the businesses and the agencies that will be ready on January 1st are those that have made Y2K a priority by dedicating staff and financial resources to implementing the solutions. It’s a real test of your skills as managers.
Here's what we've heard from some of our transit partners. In the beginning, like a lot of us, they didn't realize how widespread the Y2K issue was. Getting past that syndrome of denial is the first step, taking inventory to identify all of the possible systems, software and components that could be affected.
The next hurdle is getting the help you need to solve your problems.
In many cases, there is a dependent relationship between you and your vendors and suppliers. In some cases, transit agencies have had to await software upgrades from their vendors. This frequently entails an additional charge for the upgrade. We’ve heard that some farebox collection systems are not Y2K compliant and the manufacturer has still not provided a solution. FTA is going to give me an answer to that question, and it might be an answer the manufacturers won’t like.
And then there is the perception that while the larger systems believe they will be okay, many fear the smaller transit districts are still not devoting enough attention to the problem. That is why it is so critical that you share information with each other, information on the steps you’ve taken toward systems compliance. Whether the steps were successful or not, there is always something more to be learned.
We are here to help you get your hands on the right tools and the right resources to manage the Y2K problem. This conference is but one opportunity to learn from each other and to identify solutions.
As you probably know, funding for Y2K repairs is recognized eligible expense under the provisions of TEA-21 for each of our grant programs -- whether for new capital investments in both fixed guideways and buses, fixed guideway modernization formula programs, transit programs for rural, elderly and handicapped customers, or ITS.
We all know that TEA-21 contained record levels of investment in transit. Vice President Gore recently announced that even more money will be requested for transit for FY2000. The bottom line is that resources are available to make the necessary Y2K repairs. And we will work with you to get the dollars out in a timely way.
And we will continue with our outreach efforts and information exchange. Just last week at the Transportation Research Board conference in Washington, we met with several groups from the Intelligent Transportation Systems community, including APTA, to share examples of Y2K successes. This was a follow-up meeting from last July, when DOT held a conference aimed at moving from Y2K awareness to Y2K action. The stories we heard last week continue to prove that, working together, and with good management, we can all get the job done.
We are conducting outreach sessions such as this one all across the transportation industry. Next month, the Federal Railroad Administration will convene a meeting of the freight rail industry in Washington. And we continue to work very closely with the U.S. aviation industry. In case anyone asks you, it will be safe to fly here in the U.S. and in our neighboring countries next New Year!
We are also reaching out to our international partners -- in meetings and technical exchanges with foreign transportation officials from such countries as Japan, Korea, Canada, Mexico, and Russia.
In March, the maritime community will convene in London to look at the Y2K implications for such issues as safe shipping and business continuity. The U.S. Coast Guard is working with the International Maritime Organization on this meeting to help that critical component of our global economy prepare for the coming year. We want to be sure that the global supply of commodities like the fuel for your buses continues to flow.
As many of you know, I serve as the Chair of the Transportation Sector working group --an interagency coordinating body for the Y2K issues affecting the transportation functions of the federal government. We will meet in late February with our stakeholder associations to talk about major issues facing us in the coming months and how we will meet them.
Among the issues this group will consider is whether companies and agencies will be ready, and what their contingency plans are if they aren’t ready. Even if you are confident that you will be compliant in time for the next year -- and I hope you are confident -- every one will need to plan for the possibility that other links in their business chain may be the weak ones. We’re not finger-pointing -- that’s not a productive exercise -- we’re just being prudent.
And beyond the planning, businesses that have achieved compliance should schedule ongoing, regular tests of their systems. In addition to the critical New Year’s date, some systems may be vulnerable to dates with a series of nines - such as September 9, 1999. You’ll also want to be sure the renovated system will register 2000 as a leap year, and recognize other key dates beyond 1/1/00. We can’t afford to sit back and rely on a system that might have passed a test in May, as new data, new programs, and new links may present threats to the continued integrity of your compliant system.
As part of our work on behalf of the President’s Y2K Conversion Council, in November of last year we sought voluntary summaries from trade associations assessing the overall Y2K readiness of their respective memberships. These responses did not identify specific companies or include proprietary information. All the responses were compiled in a report to the President that was released earlier this month. Additional reports of this type will be compiled on a quarterly basis throughout 1999, and we hope to be able to relay reports on the progress being made in each area of the transportation industry.
APTA graciously provided us the results from your spring 1998 survey, which represented responses from over half of the APTA membership. We included results from this survey in the full report. We appreciate APTA’s contribution and hope that you will participate in the next APTA survey, which should be going out soon.
This information is very helpful. It shows us how DOT can best help our transit partners. Summary data is also useful in enabling us to convey your progress to the general public and to other industries. Much of the work we see over the coming months will be in alleviating the public concern for industry and government readiness. Public apprehension is expected to build as the date approaches and the media attention grows. We know you are working hard to become compliant, and we look forward to sharing your good news with the rest of the country. Believe it or not, you in the public transit industry are a vital link in many business chains. I know you believe that and will act upon it.
The report released this month found several common themes across the country, not limited to transit or the transportation industry but representative of all industry.
The multi-sector report found:
This information and more is available on the Internet. For more information on this report, and generally on the U.S. Government's Y2K Conversion Council, check out www.Y2K.gov (the site of the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion).
You might also want to check out our new, searchable database of outreach activities in the transportation sector. This database provides information on past, current, and planned events and materials related to our Y2K outreach. For this and links to brochures and other helpful tools, go to www.y2ktransport.dot.gov.
And for those who might not have Internet access, the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion has set up a toll-free number. 1-888-USA-4-Y2K can provide consumers with information about the Y2K computer problem.
But what of the federal government’s readiness? Where is DOT on the timeline?
At this point, U.S. DOT is on track --97 percent of DOT's mission critical systems have been renovated. The mission critical systems of the Federal Railroad Administration and the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation, as well as the Surface Transportation Board, have been certified as fully Y2K compliant. The Research and Special Programs Administration has completed work and is awaiting certification from our Office of Inspector General. And by the end of this month, DOT operating administrations will substantially complete the validation phase.
FAA will conduct very critical end-to-end tests of the Air Traffic Control system in a full Y2K environment from February through April. Implementation of most DOT systems will occur by March with some FAA systems following on in April, May and June, and some remaining Coast Guard systems following on in June, July, and September.
President Clinton and Vice President Gore have committed federal resources to preparing the nation to meet the Y2K challenge.
Just yesterday, there was a meeting at the White House of senior-level advisors and CEO’s from the private sector to discuss the Y2K issue. Houston was well-represented there, as was transportation. I am pleased to report that Shirley DeLibero (of APTA) did an excellent job representing the transit industry in that meeting. She promised the President’s Y2K Coordinator that all of America’s transit systems would be safe and sound -- and if those fareboxes didn’t work that they’d also be free.
Aside from that good news, we will have many opportunities this year to put to rest any fears about the safety of the transportation industry. Congress will continue to evaluate the readiness of the public and private services of this country. Several oversight hearings are expected throughout the year and you can be sure that we (and I suspect you, too) will be called to testify.
Before I leave you today, I’d just like to say that while we at DOT are eager to help you become compliant, we are also serious about your doing so.
We have the authority to withhold Federal funds from grantees whose systems are not in compliance with Y2K requirements, based on the fact that each grantee must have the technical capacity to carry out a grant.
This is certainly not something we want to do, nor would it necessarily be helpful -- but it does get the proper level of attention to this issue. Therefore, FTA has asked for letters of compliance from governing authorities with Y2K requirements as part of the grant process.
But what we really want is for each of you to reach Y2K compliance in plenty of time -- time to conduct end-to-end testing, produce comprehensive contingency plans, and help your customers feel confident about transit service in the coming year.
As President Clinton said this week in the State of the Union Address, through the hard work of everyone in government and the private sector, "the ‘Y2K problem’ can be remembered as the last headache of the 20th Century, not the first crisis of the 21st."
Thank you for all that you’ve done so far. Thank you for taking the time to come to this conference. With your help, we can look forward to celebrating New Year’s Day 2000 as a new era for public transit.
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