According to the report, FTA is directing the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to “reassess its roadway workers protection program and develop corrective action plans to reduce the risk of employees being struck by trains when working on the tracks.” FTA, Bloomberg reports, is also instructing the state’s Public Transportation Safety Board (PTSB) to “boost its oversight of the MTA’s safety programs with additional monitoring and monthly reports to the FTA for review.”
“FTA has determined that a combination of unsafe conditions and practices exists such that there is a substantial risk of death or personal injury,” said FTA Executive Director Matthew Welbes, in a directive dated Aug. 13.
According to the Bloomberg report, FTA conducted the audits after an MTA worker was fatally struck in November 2023 and another was critically injured in June 2024. The audits show that “potential train contact with employees increased by 65% last year from 2021,” but MTA Interim President of Subways and Buses Demetrius Crichlow responded to the FTA’s directives in a letter dated Aug. 14, stating the comparison “covers the period during the pandemic when there was little construction work in the subway system.”
“It is not an ‘apples to apples’ comparison,” Crichlow said in the letter, according to the Bloomberg report. “We agree that every incident is worthy of careful study and response but considering the increased volume of work in the subway system compared to prior years, we do not concur that the data supports the suggestion that there’s been some dramatic increase in risk.”
According to the report, MTA plans to appeal FTA’s directives, said Chrichlow, while pointing out that the two train incidents at the center of the directives “are still under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).”
“Of the 38 near-misses of employees in 2023, about half were due to one or more transit workers failing to follow safety procedures while other incidents involved improper communication, lack of supervision and failure to set up protection, according to the FTA directives,” Bloomberg reported.
According to the report, a spokesman for Governor Kathy Hochul directed questions to the state agency, which then provided the letter from Crichlow.
John Samuelsen, International President of the Transport Workers Union of America (TWU), the MTA’s largest union, called on Gov. Hochul and MTA CEO Janno Lieber “to immediately address the FTA’s safety concerns,” according to the report.
“The FTA directives should be a wakeup call for every transit rider in New York,” Samuelsen said. “We demand accountability from Lieber and Hochul in response to these damning safety findings. Lives are at stake.”
