The Transport Workers Union of America is calling on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and New York Governor Kathy Hochul to immediately address safety concerns on the New York City Subway – the country’s busiest mass transit system – after a Federal Transit Administration audit revealed more than 260 near-miss events involving transit workers, transit riders and property in 2023.
The FTA concluded the TWU’s long-held criticism that the MTA has not been using its own standards for reviewing track safety incidents. Following every track safety incident, the MTA simply posted safety notices in breakrooms without making a single procedural or management change, the FTA found. You can view the special directives here and here.
“The federal directives make it clear that MTA boss Janno Lieber and New York Governor Kathy Hochul are asleep at the wheel as the agencies they control are doing nothing to address safety concerns for workers and the traveling public,” said TWU International President John Samuelsen. “Instead, the bosses resort to blaming workers when safety issues arise rather than addressing their poor management of the system. The FTA directives should be a wakeup call for every transit rider in New York. We demand accountability from Lieber and Hochul in response to these damning safety findings. Lives are at stake.”
In addition to the 38 near miss events involving transit workers and 228 other near miss events involving passengers or property in 2023, New York State’s Public Transportation Safety Board, which is charged with safety oversight of the MTA and is also controlled by Hochul, is currently sitting on more than $8 million in federal funds designated for track safety oversight. The 2023 near-miss figures are a 58% increase from 2022 and a 65% increase from 2021.
“The safety incidents, including the death of a Track Worker in 2023, continue to pile up yet the so-called overseer of safety in New York State is sitting on millions of dollars meant to address the issue,” Samuelsen said. “That’s a crock of shite. Lieber has blood on his hands. Track Workers are getting killed, maimed and narrowly escaping getting hit by trains and Lieber hasn’t done a damn thing.”
The FTA’s directive requires significant action from the MTA and PTSB. Both groups are required to submit updated safety assessments detailing concrete steps they plan to take to increase safety. All of these actions must be reviewed and approved by the FTA. These reforms will then be integrated into existing safety programs to make them stronger and includes forcing MTA management to sit in weekly safety meetings to address issues head-on instead of simply posting notices in worker breakrooms.
If the PTSB and MTA fail to address the FTA’s directives, the largest transit system in the country could be subject to enforcement action, including withholding federal funding or additional federal oversight. Over the past three years, the FTA has intervened in Boston and Philadelphia to raise the level of safety in those systems. In the extreme, the FTA is empowered to take over management of a transit system, as happened to Washington, DC’s Washington Area Metropolitan Transit Authority in 2015 after a series of fatal incidents.
Importantly, the FTA audit also found the potential for collusion between the MTA and PTSB – two entities that are supposed to be independent of one another but are comprised of board members appointed by the same person – New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. The TWU supports clarifying current regulations so one person does not control both the operating agency and safety oversight agency.
“Kathy Hochul has shown she’s incapable of running a safe subway system. It’s unconscionable that she should have the power to oversee both the operations of New York’s subways and the independent agency responsible for safety,” Samuelsen said. “I want to thank FTA Administrator Veronica Vanterpool for her agency’s work on holding New York accountable.”