WASHINGTON — The Southeastern Pennyslvania Transportation Authority faces a series of deadlines to address issues regarding its “deteriorating safety record” after the Federal Transit Administration on Monday released its report on a six-month safety assessment of SEPTA practices, and issued a series of directives to both SEPTA and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.
The assessment report notes that SEPTA’s safety performance has not improved, and in some cases has worsened, since the FTA directed PennDOT to intervene in March 2023. The inspection report notes impacts from “unstable and insufficient funding” and “on-road safety issues” such as poorly designed streets and outdated rail crossings, but also calls out problems relating to:
— Assaults on transit workers, which have not been fully addressed;
— Staffing shortages in key positions, which contribute to worker fatigue, reduced training and supervision, and lessen the priority of safety-critical activities;
— Inadequate management and training of new bus and trolley operators;
— Lack of responsiveness to safety oversight from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, with issues not resolved in timely fashion;
— Limited progress on implementing a safety management system.
The FTA assessment was launched in August 2023 after a series of incidents. That included five in a single week in July, one of which killed a bus passenger [see “Three injured as SEPTA trolley derails …,” Trains News Wire, July 28, 2023, and “FTA involved in investigation …,” News Wire, Aug. 3, 2023].
SEPTA published the FTA findings on its website, along with a letter from board chair Kenneth E. Lawrence Jr. and CEO/General Manager Leslie S. Richards.
“We take these findings seriously and embrace the opportunity to work with the FTA and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to make SEPTA better,” the letter reads. It says the transit agency’s “efforts to enhance safety and security were underway before the FTA initiated the SMI process,” noting it held systemwide safety training last August and hired more transit police and deployed them in a more strategic manner, which “yielded critical improvements to personal safety, with serious crimes on the system dropping 37% the first half of this year compared to the same period last year.”
Richards told the Philadelphia Inquirer that addressing the issues will require new hiring at a time the agency faces a $240 million operating deficit, and that it is not yet clear how much compliance will cost.
The inspection process looked at the Market-Frankford subway-elevated line; the Broad Street Subway; the Norristown High Speed Line; eight trolley lines, and a 126-route bus system. SEPTA’s commuter rail system was not part of the FTA assessment because it is under the jurisdiction of the Federal Railroad Administration.
The FTA directives for SEPTA include 16 total findings and 24 required actions in three areas: transit worker safety; the ability of the System Safety Division and Control Center to ensure safe operations; and bus and rail safety issues contributing to safety events. Two directives for PennDOT include 15 findings and 17 required actions relating to oversight of the SEPTA rail system. The first focuses on the need for more resources for the State Safety Oversight program; the second on the programs in place to address the SEPTA issues, once those resources are in place.
The FTA findings regarding worker safety call for more efforts to protect transit workers from assault; clarification of action workers are expected to take to respond to fare evasion; increased collection of information on conditions that lead to safety concerns for workers; and additional training for employees who provide roadway protection for workers. The directives require SEPTA to develop plans to address these issues in 30 to 90 days, depending on the issue.
Lack of resources to address safety issues or meet service and training needs form the two findings regarding the System Safety Division and Control Center. SEPTA has 60 days to assess personnel resources in those two areas and 30 days after the FTA approves those assessments to develop a plan to address the findings; 90 days to develop an evaluation program for dispatchers and controllers; and 120 days to develop dedicated training resources for controllers.
Nine of the findings come from the examination of issues that led to recent safety events. Among them are concerns over fatigue; an insufficient ratio of supervisors to operators; training programs that do not ensure new operators are ready for service; a lack of regular performance evaluations for operators, and a lack of formal policies for moving and securing vehicles at rail maintenance facilities. The directive requires SEPTA to assess the the fatigue and supervisor issues within 90 days, with scheduling to be changed with 30 days of FTA approval to address the fatigue problem and an action plan to be developed within 30 days of FTA approval to develop adequent supervisor oversight. Other issues have timelines ranging from 45 to 150 days for submitting plans to the FTA for approval.
The directive regarding PennDOT resources calls out a need to strengthen the agency’s State Safety Oversight program; and that it is tracking a number of SEPTA corrective action plans and open accident or investigation reports past their initial due dates. It sets deadlines of 45 to 90 days for PennDOT to submit plans to the FTA to address those issues. Finally, the second directive to PennDOT lays out 11 findings and 14 actions on what the agency must do to ensure SEPTA compliance.
