WASHINGTON — Rail trespassing and suicide fatalities increased by 70% between 2016 and 2025, and now account for 50% of all fatalities reported to the National Transit Database, the Federal Transit Administration said in a safety advisory issued Monday, Nov. 24.
Advisory 25-1 calls on state agencies overseeing rail transit operations to direct those operators to take a series of actions to identify hazards related to the issue as well as potential mitigation measures.
Specifically, the FTA recommends that those state safety oversight agencies direct rail transit operators to:
— Identify hazards through review and analysis of data relating to trespassing and suicides;
— Conduct a safety risk assessment based on that analysis;
— Identify new mitigation efforts or existing mitigation that needs to be modified to reduce identified risks;
— Monitor those mitigation efforts for effectiveness.
The FTA categories incidents in three categories: Major events (including fatalities, serious injuries, non-serious injuries requiring transport for medical attention, collisions, evacuations, derailments, runaway trains, and substantial damage); fatalities; and injuries. Those categories have increased by 71%, 70%, and 65%, respectively, over the last nine years, as shown in the table below.
The federal agency is recommending that the state safety agencies submit any documentation resulting from this process to their federal reporting system within 180 days.
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Seems the biggest hazard is criminals with rap sheets longer than the trans-Siberian Railway shooting a defenseless passenger or setting her on fire, or pushing a passenger off the platform in front of a moving train.
If you wonder why transit ridership is down by 25%, 40%, 50%, maybe that’s one of the reasons.