Federal transportation officials have sent a “final warning” to New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), threatening to withhold up to one-quarter of its funds if the agency fails to revise its risk assessment for subway track workers.
In an Aug. 19 letter, Joe DeLorenzo, chief safety officer at the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), accused the MTA of repeatedly using “flawed analytical approaches” to underestimate the safety risks track workers face on the job.
Federal officials had ordered the MTA to draw up a new safety plan after a subway track worker was fatally struck by a train in November 2023 and another worker was seriously injured on the job in June 2024. Both victims were flaggers, whose job is to warn oncoming train operators of maintenance crews working on the tracks….