AASHTO Journal - FTA Issues Directive Regarding Transit Worker Assaults

The Federal Transit Administration has issued a general directive requiring transit agencies nationwide to take action to protect frontline transit workers from the risk of assaults.

[Above photo by MTA]

Formally entitled “General Directive 24-1: Required Actions Regarding Assaults on Transit Workers,” it requires every transit agency subject to FTA Public Transportation Agency Safety Plans or PTASPs to do the following:

Conduct a risk assessment of assaults on the agency’s transit workers, specifically on transit vehicles and facilities, using the Safety Management System processes outlined in its Agency Safety Plan.
If a transit agency has determined it has an unacceptable level of risk of assaults on transit workers, it must identify strategies to mitigate that risk and improve transit worker safety.
Every transit agency serving a large, urbanized area (with a population of more than 200,000 people) must comply with PTASP requirements to involve the joint labor-management Safety Committee when identifying safety risk mitigations and strategies.
Finally, each transit agency must provide information to FTA within 90 days on the risk level identified in its system, how it is mitigating those risks, and how it is monitoring the safety risk associated with assaults on transit workers.

The General Directive is necessary because from 2013 to 2021, the National Transit Database documented a 120 percent increase in the number of assaults against transit workers, noted Veronica Vanterpool, FTA’s deputy administrator, in a statement.

“No American should go to work and worry they will not return home safely,” she said. “That is particularly true for the transit workers who were valuable frontline workers in our nation’s time of need. This is just one step as FTA seeks to improve transit worker safety. We will continue to take action to ensure that our nation’s transit workers are safe and secure while running our nation’s trains, buses, and transit facilities.”

This is latest step by the agency to improve protections for transit workers as well as transit passengers.

In April, the FTA issued a final rule updating its PTASPs, while issuing a newly-revised National Public Transportation Safety Plan as well.

The FTA noted that the changes to its PTASP rule apply to more than 700 transit agencies nationwide, including requirements for transit agencies serving areas with a population of 200,000 or more that largely coincide with the most significant increases in reported assaults on transit workers.

As a result, those agencies are required to establish safety committees with equal numbers of frontline transit worker and management representatives to address safety issues.

The updated PTASP regulation includes specific requirements for safety committee membership, procedures, and responsibilities to provide frontline workers more input into safety decision-making.