The system safety program and its implementation shall be assessed internally by the passenger rail operation and audited externally by FRA or FRA's designee.

(a) Following FRA's initial approval of the passenger rail operation's SSP plan pursuant to § 270.201, the passenger rail operation shall annually conduct an assessment of the extent to which:

(1) The system safety program is fully implemented;

(2) The passenger rail operation is in compliance with the implemented elements of the approved system safety program; and

(3) The passenger rail operation has achieved the goals set forth in § 270.103(c).

(b) As part of its SSP plan, the passenger rail operation shall set forth a statement describing the processes used to:

(1) Conduct internal system safety program assessments;

(2) Internally report the findings of the internal system safety program assessments;

(3) Develop, track, and review recommendations as a result of the internal system safety program assessments;

(4) Develop improvement plans based on the internal system safety program assessments. Improvement plans shall, at a minimum, identify who is responsible for carrying out the necessary tasks to address assessment findings and specify a schedule of target dates with milestones to implement the improvements that address the assessment findings; and

(5) Manage revisions and updates to the SSP plan based on the internal system safety program assessments.

(c)(1) Within 60 days of completing its internal SSP plan assessment pursuant to paragraph (a) of this section, the passenger rail operation shall:

(i) Submit to FRA a copy of the passenger rail operation's internal assessment report that includes a system safety program assessment and the status of internal assessment findings and improvement plans to the FRA Associate Administrator for Railroad Safety and Chief Safety Officer, Mail Stop 25, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590; and

(ii) Outline the specific improvement plans for achieving full implementation of the SSP plan, as well as achieving the goals of the plan.

(2) The passenger rail operation's chief official responsible for safety shall certify the results of the internal SSP plan assessment.

(a) FRA may conduct, or cause to be conducted, external audits of a system safety program. Each audit will evaluate compliance with the elements required by this part in an approved SSP plan. FRA shall provide the passenger rail operation written notification of the results of any audit.

(b)(1) Within 60 days of FRA's written notification of the results of the audit, the passenger rail operation shall submit to FRA for approval an improvement plan to address the audit findings that require corrective action. At a minimum, the improvement plan shall identify who is responsible for carrying out the necessary tasks to address audit findings and specify target dates and milestones to implement the improvements that address the audit findings.

(2) If FRA does not approve the passenger rail operation's improvement plan, FRA will notify the passenger rail operation of the specific deficiencies in the improvement plan. The affected passenger rail operation shall amend the proposed plan to correct the deficiencies identified by FRA and provide FRA with a corrected copy of the improvement plan no later than 30 days following its receipt of FRA's written notice that the proposed plan was not approved.

(3) Upon request, the passenger rail operation shall provide to FRA and States participating under part 212 of this chapter for review a report upon request regarding the status of the implementation of the improvements set forth in the improvement plan established pursuant to paragraph (b)(1) of this section.