By David Shepardson
(Reuters) -The U.S. Transportation Department said Tuesday it may withhold up to 25% of federal transit funding for New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority over safety risks for track maintenance workers if the agency does not improve.
The department’s Federal Transit Administration issued a directive in August 2024 to the MTA’s New York City Transit after the agency did not improve safety measures between the November 2023 death of a track maintenance employee and a second serious injury to an employee in June 2024, the agency said.
The MTA must submit a new comprehensive risk assessment of its Rail Transit Roadway Worker Protection within 30 days, the department said Tuesday. The MTA did not immediately comment.
“Let me be very clear: We will not accept being jerked around on safety and security issues any longer,” FTA Administrator Marc Molinaro said in a statement.
An FTA audit last year identified significant safety deficiencies and directed the agency to perform additional oversight activities to address an escalating pattern of safety incidents and concerns affecting New York City transit workers.
The agency experienced 38 potential employee near misses in 2023, a 58% increase over 2022.
The Trump administration has also threatened to withhold MTA funding over subway crime and sparred with the MTA as it tries to kill Manhattan’s congestion pricing program.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy earlier this year threatened to withhold federal government approvals for other projects and potentially billions in funding if the agency did not end congestion pricing.
Congestion pricing, which was introduced in January, charges a toll in Manhattan on vehicles driving south of 60th Street. The program is designed to cut down traffic in Manhattan and speed the flow of vehicles and raise revenue to fund mass transit capital improvements, mainly for the subway but also for commuter rail lines.
(Reporting by David Shepardson, Editing by Franklin Paul and Alistair Bell)
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