FTA’s general directive shows transit agencies need to create safety risk mitigations to protect frontline workers

In September 2024, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) issued general directive 24-1: Required Actions Regarding Assaults on Transit Workers. The general directive was the first issued by the FTA and required more than 700 transit agencies throughout the U.S. to take action to protect frontline transit workers from the risk of assaults. According to FTA, the transit agencies had to: 

• Conduct a safety risk assessment related to assaults on transit workers using the Safety Management System (SMS) processes documented in their Agency Safety Plan (ASP), unless the agency conducted a safety risk assessment related to assaults on transit workers in the 12 months preceding the date of issuance of the general directive. 
• Identify safety risk mitigations or strategies necessary as a result of the safety risk assessment. 
• Provide information to FTA within 90 days of issuance of the general directive on how they are assessing, mitigating and monitoring the safety risk associated with assaults on transit workers. 

According to the FTA, 90 percent of transit agencies that submitted reports (602 transit agencies) conducted a safety risk assessment as a result of the general directive, whereas 10 percent (66 transit agencies) reported that a safety risk assessment had been completed in the 12 months prior to the date of issuance of the general directive. 

The general directive required transit agencies to provide an overall risk rating (likelihood and severity) for the potential consequences of assaults on transit workers through five different categories: 

• Large UZA: Refers to a transit agency that serves an urbanized area (UZA) with a population of 200,000 or more. FTA notes each transit agency serving a large UZA must involve the joint labor-management safety committee when identifying safety risk mitigations as a result of the agency’s safety risk assessment. 
• Small UZA: Refers to a transit agency that provides service in a UZA with a population of fewer than 200,000 and does not also provide service in a large UZA. 
• Rail/multimodal: Refers to a rail transit agency in FTA’s State Safety Oversight Program. 
• Large bus: Refers to a recipient or subrecipient of funds under section 5307 funds that operates more than 100 vehicles in peak revenue service and does not operate a rail fixed guideway public transportation system. 
• Small bus: Refers to a recipient or subrecipient of funds under section 5307 that operates 100 or fewer vehicles in peak revenue service across all non-rail fixed route modes or in any one non-fixed route mode and does not operate a rail fixed guideway public transportation system. 

After all of the surveys, FTA notes 68 percent (457 transit agencies and/or safety committees) determined that safety risk mitigations were necessary to reduce the hazard’s assessed risk, as well as 89 percent (407) of transit agencies and/or their safety committees identified that mitigations are necessary as a result of the safety risk assessment conducted in response to the general directive. 

The full report can be found on FTA’s website.