The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) withdrew an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) concerning minimum safety standards to prevent fatigue-related safety incidents on July 1, 2025. The ANPRM contemplated the promulgation of regulations regarding transit worker hours of service and fatigue risk management programs. FTA will not issue a notice of proposed rulemaking regarding those subjects at this time. However, other regulations may still require individual rail transit agencies to address safety risks caused by transit worker fatigue.
In the original ANPRM, issued on October 30, 2023, FTA announced it was considering proposing minimum safety standards to guarantee transit workers would receive adequate rest to prevent safety incidents. FTA explained that it and local investigations had identified multiple rail transit crashes caused by fatigued train operators. To address fatigue-related risks, FTA contemplated requiring hours of service regulations, which other U.S. Department of Transportation operating administrations had promulgated, and fatigue risk management programs, which implemented processes to account for and mitigate factors that contribute to fatigue. The agency sought comments regarding the regulations it should implement, and later issued a related request for information to rail transit agencies.
FTA has now withdrawn the ANPRM and will not promulgate fatigue-related regulations, but has done so because it has identified existing measures it asserts it can use to mitigate the safety risks associated with fatigue. These include the existing Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan regulations, which require agencies to mitigate safety risks they identify through a Safety Management System-based analysis. Those risks may include operator fatigue. FTA also stated that it may issue special or general directives to address risks associated with transit worker fatigue, and must issue restrictions and prohibitions if it determines that unsafe conditions or practices—including those associated with transit worker fatigue—create a substantial risk of death or personal injury.
The withdrawal of the ANPRM was one of numerous regulatory actions FTA took last week as part of a deregulatory push. We anticipate communicating more about those actions in the coming days.
The notice of withdrawal is linked here and published at 90 Fed. Reg. 28700. The original ANPRM is linked here was published at 88 Fed. Red. 74107. For additional questions, please contact Allison Ishihara Fultz, Ayelet Hirschkorn, John Putnam, Subash Iyer, Chuck Spitulnik, Christian Alexander, Casey Morris, or Grant Glovin.