§ 5318 — Bus Testing Facility

(a) The Secretary shall maintain one facility for testing a new bus model for maintainability, reliability, safety, performance (including braking performance), structural integrity, fuel economy, emissions, and noise. (b) The Secretary shall enter into a contract or cooperative agreement with, or make a grant to, a qualified person or organization to operate and maintain the facility. The contract, cooperative agreement, or grant may provide for the testing of rail cars and other public transportation vehicles at the facility. (c) The person operating and maintaining the facility shall establish and collect fees for the testing of vehicles at the facility. The Secretary must approve the fees. (d) The Secretary shall enter into a contract or cooperative agreement with, or make a grant to, the operator of the facility under which the Secretary shall pay 80 percent of the cost of testing a vehicle at the facility from amounts available to carry out this section. The entity having the vehicle tested shall pay 20 percent of the cost. (1) Amounts appropriated or otherwise made available under this chapter may be obligated or expended to acquire a new bus model only if— (A) a bus of that model has been tested at a facility authorized under subsection (a); and (B) the bus tested under subparagraph (A) met— (i) performance standards for maintainability, reliability, performance (including braking performance), structural integrity, fuel economy, emissions, and noise, as established by the Secretary by rule; and (ii) the minimum safety performance standards established by the Secretary pursuant to section 5329(b). (2) (B)(i) shall include a bus model scoring system that results in a weighted, aggregate score that uses the testing categories under subsection (a) and considers the relative importance of each such testing category. The final rule issued under subparagraph (B)(i) shall establish a “pass/fail” standard that uses the aggregate score described in the preceding sentence. Amounts appropriated or otherwise made available under this chapter may be obligated or expended to acquire a new bus model only if the new bus model has received a passing aggregate test score. The Secretary shall work with the bus testing facility, bus manufacturers, and transit agencies to develop the bus model scoring system under this paragraph. A passing aggregate test score under the rule issued under subparagraph (B)(i) indicates only that amounts appropriated or made available under this chapter may be obligated or expended to acquire a new bus model and shall not be interpreted as a warranty or guarantee that the new bus model will meet a purchaser’s specific requirements. (f) A facility operated and maintained under this section may use funds made available under this section for the acquisition of equipment and capital projects related to testing new bus models.