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As a part of the Biden-Harris Administration's continued commitment to protecting America's frontline transit workers from assault, the U.S.DOT’s FTA announced General Directive 24-1: Required Actions Regarding Assaults on Transit Workers on September 25, 2024. This General Directive, the first one to be issued by FTA, will require more than 700 transit agencies nationwide to take action to protect frontline transit workers from the risk of assaults.
"No American should go to work and worry they will not return home safely," said FTA Deputy Administrator Veronica Vanterpool. "That is particularly true for the transit workers who were valuable frontline workers in our nation’s time of need. Transit workers experienced a significant increase in assaults over the years, which is unacceptable. 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."
FTA will host a webinar to provide more information about the General Directive updates and will announce the date soon.
See Tracks? Think Train® Week (formerly Rail Safety Week) is a concentrated week of rail safety education focusing on the importance of making safe choices when driving or walking near railroad tracks and trains. Beginning in 2017, Operation Lifesaver Inc. (OLI), State Operation Lifesaver Programs and rail safety partners across the U.S., Canada and Mexico to save lives by further:
- Preventing rail crossing and trespass incidents across North America to save lives.
- Concentrating public attention on the need for rail safety education to save lives.
FTA hosted a webinar on September 25, 2024, to discuss transit rail grade crossing safety from both operational and public education and outreach perspectives with presentations from OLI, Hampton Roads Transit and Rutgers University. View additional FTA resources for transit agencies here.
On October 21, 2022, FTA issued special directives to the agencies that oversee safety at rail transit systems State Safety Oversight Agencies (SSOAs), requiring them to develop and implement risk-based inspection (RBI) programs as required by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
FTA will use this documentation to verify that each RBI program is working in the field as intended and is effective for the size, number and complexity of the rail transit agencies (RTAs) that an SSOA oversees. After verification is complete, FTA will continue to support SSOAs by providing technical assistance and forums where SSOAs can share implementation lessons with peers to help raise the bar for all programs. FTA will confirm that SSOAs have continued to implement and improve their RBI programs over time through the triennial audit process.
On September 10, 2024, FTA hosted a virtual Public Roundtable with transit bus manufacturers and the transit industry to discuss safety and elements of transit bus design that impact operator visibility. FTA facilitated discussion among manufacturers, transit agencies, labor unions and transit industry stakeholders on what efforts are needed to improve bus operator visibility through bus safety designs, such as mirror size, placement and A-pillar design.
Please visit the TSO website for additional resources and questions regarding bus operator visibility.
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