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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 183 / Friday, September 24, 2021 / Notices Issued in Washington, DC.
Carolyn R. Hayward-Williams, Director, Office of Railroad Systems and Technology.
FR Doc. 202120640 Filed 92321; 8:45 am BILLING CODE 491006P

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Transit Administration FTA Docket No. FTA 20210012

Request for Information on Transit Worker Safety Federal Transit Administration, Department of Transportation DOT.
ACTION: Request for information.
AGENCY:

The Federal Transit Administration FTA administers the Public Transportation Safety Program Safety Program to improve the safety performance of the Nations transit systems. FTA adopted the principles and methods of Safety Management Systems SMS as the foundation of the Safety Program. FTA uses SMS
processes and activities to proactively identify and address safety risk at the industry level. Through this Request for Information RFI, FTA solicits public input regarding safety topics that affect transit workers in two areas: Rail transit Roadway Worker Protection RWP and transit worker assault prevention. FTA
will use this information to evaluate potential actions to mitigate the identified safety risk for transit workers.
DATES: Comments are requested by November 23, 2021.
ADDRESSES: You may file comments identified by docket number FTA
20210012 by any of the following methods:
Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to https www.regulations.gov and follow the online instructions for submitting comments.
Mail: Docket Management Facility, U.S. Department of Transportation, 1200
New Jersey Ave. SE, West Building Ground Floor, Room W12140, Washington, DC 205900001.
Hand Delivery or Courier: West Building Ground Floor, Room W12140, 1200 New Jersey Ave. SE, between 9:00
a.m. and 5:00 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
Fax: 202 4932251.
Instructions: For detailed instructions on submitting comments, see the Public Participation heading of the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document. Note that all comments received will be posted without change to http www.regulations.gov, including any personal information provided.
SUMMARY:

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Privacy Act: Except as provided below, all comments received into the docket will be made public in their entirety. The comments will be searchable by the name of the individual submitting the comment or signing the comment, if submitted on behalf of an association, business, labor union, etc.. You should not include information in your comment that you do not want to be made public. You may review DOTs complete Privacy Act Statement in the Federal Register published on April 11, 2000 65 FR
1947778 or at https
www.transportation.gov/privacy.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ray Biggs, Office of Transit Safety and OversightSafety Assurance and Risk Management Division, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Mail Stop TSO10, Washington, DC 20590, 202 3664043
or Ray.Biggs@dot.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In August 2016, FTA published the Public Transportation Safety Program regulation, 49 CFR part 670, adopting the principles and methods of SMS and clarifying that FTA will follow these principles and methods in its development of rules, regulations, policies, guidance, best practices, and technical assistance administered under the authority of 49 U.S.C. 5329.
FTA expanded its safety oversight capabilities by establishing an internal SMS approach for identifying transit safety hazards and mitigating safety risk.
In 2019, FTA implemented its Safety Risk Management SRM process to proactively address safety concerns impacting the transit industry. The SRM
process follows a five-step approach: 1
Identify safety concerns; 2 assess safety risk; 3 develop mitigation; 4
implement mitigation; and 5 monitor safety performance. As a result of the first two steps, FTA may develop and advance appropriate mitigations to address a safety risk, such as proposed safety regulations, general or special directives, safety advisories, or technical assistance and training activities.
FTA is currently analyzing two safety concerns utilizing its SRM process related to transit worker safety: RWP
and transit worker assault prevention.
FTA has observed that transit agencies have worked to improve transit worker safety in both safety concern areas through new technologies, increased training, and the establishment of new rules and procedures.
Rail Transit Roadway Worker Protection An RWP program is a rail transit agencys RTA approach to ensuring
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worker safety during tasks conducted on or about the transit roadway, such as track inspections. These programs are designed to protect workers from the movement of trains, as well as other hazards on the roadway, like electrified third rail. Some programs include redundant protections, or protections beyond the workers ability to detect a train.
FTA categorizes redundant protection into two main groups, physical and procedural. Physical redundant protections are technological or mechanical interventions that physically stop a train from striking a roadway worker, such as a derailer or shunt in the signal system. Procedural redundant protections are rules-based interventions that rely on worker training and compliance, such as the use of foul time to clear the track for workers.
The National Transportation Safety Board NTSB and Transit Advisory Committee for Safety TRACS
recommended that FTA take action to address safety concerns associated with RWP. The NTSB included Improving Rail Worker Safety in its 20212022
Most Wanted List, which identified FTAs lack of RWP regulations, as well as concerns about a lack of redundant protections and deficiencies in agency RWP training programs. TRACS
developed eight RWP recommendations in the final report submitted in September 2020, which included minimum safety rules and requirements, as well as research and best practices for RWP.
Transit Worker Assault Prevention TRACS also recommended actions to address transit worker assault. FTA
continues to explore options for potential FTA actions to address this concern. From 2010 to 2020, FTA has noted an average annual increase of 17
percent in the rate of all security events reported to the National Transit Database NTD per passenger boarding.
There also has been an increase in the rate of assaults on transit operators, defined by the NTD as the personnel other than security agents scheduled to be aboard vehicles in revenue operations, including vehicle operators, conductors, and ticket collectors. Based on a review of NTD data, FTA also notes that other transit workers such as station managers, who do not meet the NTD
definition of operators but are publicfacing, also experience assaults in transit systems.
For the purposes of this RFI, in discussing transit worker assault, FTA
will use definitions established in the NTD. The NTD defines assault as an
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