An agreement with the Met Council and the union representing bus and train operators in Minnesota has added new language to help improve workplace safety on public transit.
Updated equipment maintenance, new sanitary standards, and greater protections if drivers get assaulted on the job, were among the main additions. Drivers like Judith Jackson say the changes were necessary.
“I think it’s great. I think that, maybe, they will start paying attention to the issues that we do have,” Jackson said.
Like Jackson, other Metro Transit drivers are celebrating the new safety plan, which will look to curb the safety issues that have plagued the transit system for the last several years.
Driver Emmanuel Butler shared that he has been attacked while on the clock, and now he’s happy to see something is being done.
“I’m feeling really good about it,” Butler said. “My second year as an operator, I was viciously assaulted. So now that we have the change coming, I’m looking forward to it.”
Drew Kerr works for Metro Transit. He says that changes will help with the overall safety of drivers and passengers.
“We put our operators and other staff out there on the frontlines, and their expectations, rightfully so, is that they’re going to have a safe place to work,” Kerr said. “A safe environment to do their job. They need to have that safe environment to, in turn, provide the safe service that our riders expect.”
It’s just another step in a larger safety effort Metro Transit is instituting, as more will be rolled out to help customers feel safer in the coming future.
The plan is different, however, from a security and safety action plan passed last summer, which features more detailed steps to stem crime and nuisance behaviors on public transportation, such as smoking and drug use.
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