Anchorage Assembly has one meeting left before a transit safety deadline

The Anchorage Assembly has one meeting left, on Tuesday, September 15, to adopt an amended transit safety plan before the FTA's September 16 deadline. The Public Transportation Department's safety committee has signed off. The Assembly has not.

An FTA review in April found the plan the Assembly approved in January lacked six of 14 required targets. The amendment expands the target table from eight categories to 14 without changing targets the Assembly approved, the department says.

Public Transportation Director Bart Rudolph wrote in the memorandum that "Assembly approval is the remaining step needed to complete the corrective action."

Assaults involving security staff rose to 35 in fiscal 2025 from 22. Safety and security events, a count far wider than assaults or collisions, nearly doubled to 2,073, or 86.61 for every 100,000 miles buses ran in service.

The department had no Acting Security Contract Administrator from December 20, 2024, to July 28, 2025, which the plan says "may have contributed to gaps in the proper documentation of security officer incident reports."

Operator assaults fell to 14 from 21. The department targets 13 operator assaults and 30 security assaults for FY2026.