FTA issues general directive to help transit agencies protect frontline workers from risk of assaults

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has issued general directive 24-1: Required Actions Regarding Assaults on Transit Workers. The general directive, the first one to be issued by FTA, will require more than 700 transit agencies throughout the U.S. to take action to protect frontline transit workers from the risk of assaults.

"Frontline transit workers keep our nation moving every day and the Biden-Harris Administration is making sure they have the safe workplace they deserve," said U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) Secretary Pete Buttigieg. "The general directive we are announcing today will build on previous actions we have taken to address the unacceptable level of assaults on transit workers and further protect these essential employees as they perform their important jobs." 

"Over the past decade, we’ve seen a tragic and unacceptable rise in verbal and physical assaults on the men and women who are critical in providing a transportation lifeline for millions of people," said USDOT Deputy Secretary Polly Trottenberg. "That’s why USDOT and the FTA are directing more than 700 of the largest transit agencies across the nation to put a stop to it – and we are holding them accountable." 

General directive 24-1 requires every transit agency subject to FTA's Public Transportation Agency Safety Plans (PTASP) regulation 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. 
• 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.  

According to the FTA, from 2013 to 2021, the National Transit Database documented a 120 percent increase in the number of assaults against transit workers. 

"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." 

The general directive builds upon previous steps by the Biden-Harris Administration to strengthen transit worker safety:  

• 2021: Request for Information on Transit Worker Safety and the safety risk related to assaults on transit workers. 
• 2022: Special Directives on Required Actions Regarding Transit Worker Assault issued to nine transit agencies, accounting for 79 percent of all assaults on transit workers. 
• 2024: Updated PTASP regulation to strengthen transit worker safety, including new measures to assess the risk of assaults and involving joint labor-management safety committees to develop mitigations and strategies.