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Transit Safety & Oversight (TSO)

Now Available: Responses to General Directive 24-1

FTA published Responses to General Directive 24-1: Required Actions Regarding Assaults on Transit Workers.

Now Available: Conference Presentations

See presentations from the 2025 APTA Rail Conference and more on our Conference Presentations webpage.

Now Available: TSO Spotlight 2026 Q1 Newsletter

FTA's latest newsletter shares a safety advisory on reducing rail trespass and suicide events, the upcoming 2026 SSO and RTA Safety Workshop and transit agency efforts to address substance use.

Overview

FTA administers a national transit safety program and compliance oversight process to advance safe and reliable transit service throughout the United States. The Office of Transit Safety and Oversight helps to increase transit safety through:

  • Policy development
  • Hazard investigation
  • Data collection
  • Risk analysis
  • Oversight programs
  • Information sharing

What's New

FTA Trespass and Suicide Prevention Webinar 

FTA hosted a webinar to discuss strategies for preventing trespass and suicide incidents.

Safety Advisory 25-1: Reducing Rail Trespassing and Suicide Events

FTA issued a safety advisory and provided resources to support transit agencies with reducing the rate of rail trespassing and suicide events. FTA recommends that State Safety Oversight Agencies direct the Rail Transit Agencies in their jurisdictions to assess risks and identify strategies to reduce these types of events.   

2026 FTA Drug and Alcohol Program National Conference

Registration is open for the 19th Annual FTA Drug and Alcohol Program National Conference, taking place April 14–16, 2026, in Portland, OR. 

This three-day conference is free of charge and is designed for Drug and Alcohol Program Managers and other transit officials. The workshop will offer sessions to foster a better understanding of the FTA Prevention of Alcohol Misuse and Prohibited Drug Use in Transit Operations (49 CFR Part 655) and USDOT Procedures for Transportation Workplace Drug and Alcohol Testing Programs (49 CFR Part 40).

2025 Cybersecurity Awareness Month

October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month and in recognition, FTA hosted a webinar that provided an overview of cybersecurity event reporting and shared available resources including a demo of FTA's Cybersecurity Assessment Tool for Transit (CATT), and the Transit Cybersecurity Framework Community Profile.

Tuesday, October 28, 2025, at 1:00 PM ET
Presentation | Recording

Two-Hour Safety Event Notification Guide

The FTA’s State Safety Oversight (SSO) regulation establishes definitions and minimum notification thresholds for safety events. The SSO final rule defines a “safety event” and requires a rail transit agency (RTA) to notify its State Safety Oversight Agency (SSOA) and the FTA within two hours of any safety event that meets certain thresholds. This Two-Hour Notification Guide is designed to help RTAs identify those events and notify FTA. This document updates prior guidance, issued on September 24, 2021, to incorporate the changes adopted in FTA’s SSO final rule, which published on October 18, 2024.