Keeping workers and passengers safe and sound
The Federal Transit Administration released its audit of the MTA, calling the agency’s track safety “troubling.” The audit was initiated after a worker was struck and killed by a train last November and revealed that “close calls” doubled in 2023 from the year prior. It attributes most dangerous events to “the failure of transit employees to “comply with key safety rules and established procedures.”
The MTA is not alone – many transit agencies nationwide struggle with the realities of operating in a post-COVID world. The FTA’s audit underscores a more significant truth for all public transit: an organization’s safety culture is only as good as its relationship with its workforce.
To be fair, public transportation agencies face tremendous pressure daily. Workforce and leadership must balance politics, customer experience, fare policy, aging infrastructure, financial constraints, funding concerns, and public safety on a rolling and real-time basis. The structure of transit agencies also creates challenges, as they are notoriously hierarchical and siloed in structure and processes, rendering them less effective in dealing with things holistically and systemwide.
Public transit agencies are also dealing with the growing mental health and substance use disorder crisis many of our friends and neighbors are experiencing, decreased affordable housing, and random acts of violence, and it is creating scary situations for passengers and workers alike. Riders are beginning to lose trust and respect for their systems, leading to an increase in fare evasion, defacement, and worker mistreatment and assaults.
Outweighed political expediency has left organizations nationwide in the unenviable position of playing “whack-a-mole:” hammering at the day’s issue rather than making systemic analysis and the shifts needed to bring our systems back to better days. Passengers are beginning to lose trust and respect for their systems, leading to an increase in fare evasion, defacement, and worker mistreatment and assaults. Instead of empowering their workforce to help tackle these issues, cash-strapped transit agencies are cutting overtime and salaries, limiting employee input and diminishing their ability to challenge the status quo.
It is creating a safety culture powder keg where everyone loses.
Frontline rank-and-file workers especially have unparalleled insight into operational challenges, and many possess the institutional knowledge of what works, what doesn’t work, and how we arrived at this moment in time. Safety culture is a subset of the larger organization, and the larger elements must be addressed to create a robust safety culture.
Many writers talk about the darkness before dawn. In many ways, we are getting close to dawn, but work needs to be done to address issues across all systems through organization-wide workforce engagement.
First, the issues surrounding public transit today are familiar. The Port Authority successfully navigated similar problems in the 1980s and 1990s; other agencies have done the same. The world may be different, but some things can be learned from the past.
Second, as some of the players at the MTA have recently changed, the collective leadership table must initiate a comprehensive review process, open themselves to feedback, and support changes that increase transparency. This sometimes means leaning into some of the more uncomfortable dynamics, being open and vulnerable, and creating a safe place for workers to share their lived experiences. At a recent industry forum, a transit agency official from elsewhere in the country recalled her reaction when encountering unpleasant findings during their safety audit. At first, she had a hard time accepting the unwelcome truths. But she acknowledged how transformative it was for her organization when she leaned into the findings. The management team, rank-and-file workforce, and even regulators ultimately embraced the resulting changes. This auditing work isn’t easy, but vital to positive outcomes.
Third, a robust employee engagement process must underpin the reassessment of existing operations and the implementation of new protocols. Agencies must also prioritize internal communication efforts to disseminate the audit’s findings and allow for ongoing improvements and feedback during implementation. The implementation program must clarify responsibilities and accountabilities for delivery with feedback.
In short, the process must be both top-down and bottom-up…and continuous. When those processes are not in balance, it will be difficult to enact meaningful change. Safety culture is a subset of the larger organization, and all elements must be addressed to create a robust safety culture.
The MTA is not alone in facing challenges. Honestly, it has been a very challenging four years for us all. However, with exemplary efforts and changes, we can set the standards for the entire country. Safety first is paramount.
Deb Wathen Finn is the president of the Wathen Group and previously served in executive roles at the region’s transportation agencies, including NJ Transit as a founder, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and the GM for transit services at the Niagra Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA).
