Transit agencies must develop safety programs for crews that work on light rail, subway tracks

Pittsburgh Regional Transit will have to make some operational changes for maintenance crews that work on light rail tracks to meet new federal safety requirements announced Tuesday.

For the first time in its history, the Federal Transit Administration announced a new rule requiring agencies to submit rail worker safety plans to state oversight agencies. Local transit systems have one year to develop state-approved programs once the rule is published Thursday.

At a media briefing, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and FTA Deputy Administrator Veronica Vanterpool said Tuesday that federal officials worked with two major transit unions and safety experts to develop the uniform standards that all agencies must meet to receive federal funding. Those standards will include assessments to identify dangerous activities, safety manuals and protocols to protect workers along active rail and subway systems, and required training programs for anyone working in those dangerous areas.

Buttigieg said the agency decided to develop safety standards after statistics showed 29 workers had been killed and 144 injured working along active transit lines since 2008. Setting minimum standards should improve those numbers, Vanterpool said.

“Those can be risky jobs even when every safety measure is followed,” Vanterpool said. “This final rule will save lives and ensure that our transit workers, who work tirelessly to maintain our rail transit systems nationwide, get home safely each day to their families and loved ones.”

Federal officials filed notice in March that they were developing the new safety rules and received more than 7,000 comments about the issue. Some agencies already may have some of the new requirements in place, but others may have to start from scratch.

Adam Brandolph, spokesman for Pittsburgh Regional Transit, said the agency will work with the state Department of Transportation’s State Safety Oversight office to comply with the new rule.

We’re somewhere in the middle,” he said in an email. “We already meet some of the standards but will likely have to make some changes to our existing programs to comply with the new rules.”

The rule for rail workers is part of a continuing effort by DOT to improve safety for transit employees. In September, it issued a general directive to more than 700 agencies to conduct a risk assessment and develop a mitigation strategy to reduce the number of assaults on transit drivers.