U.S. Transportation Dept proposes rail worker safety rule

Rail transit workers will have greater safety protections under a new Federal Transit Administration rule announced Tuesday.

The proposed rule is the first of its kind to set minimum standards for rail transit agencies to ramp up safety measures that protect people working on or along the nation’s train tracks.

“These transit workers perform vital and often dangerous work to ensure that subways, light rail and street cars stay moving so that millions of Americans can get to work or school or wherever they need to be,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said.

The rule gives federally funded transit agencies one year to create and receive approval for a roadway worker protection program focused on people who work on and around train tracks. The agencies will also need to provide training for their workers and to report unsafe situations. The programs must include extra protections for lone railway workers.

According to the DOT, 29 rail transit workers have been killed and 144 have been injured since 2008.

The proposed FTA rule is the latest to address rail worker safety, Buttigieg said. The DOT recently issued a final rule that requires railroads to provide emergency escape breathing apparatus to train crews and other employees when they transport hazardous materials. The Transportation Secretary cited a train crash in Graniteville, S.C., in 2005 that killed nine people and caused 250 people to be treated for toxic chlorine exposure after a pair of trains collided.

Earlier this year, the agency also finalized a rule that requires freight trains to have at least two crew members on board. The Train Crew Size Safety Requirement followed last year’s derailment of 38 freight cars carrying hazardous materials in East Palestine, Ohio.