WASHINGTON — The Federal Railroad Administration has selected 25 projects in 13 states to receive railroad trespassing enforcement and suicide prevention grants.
A total of $1.96 million of the $2.26 million total in the Railroad Trespassing Enforcement Activities program will fund hourly wages for police to enforce trespass violations at known “hot spots,” where trespassing and suicides have been known to take place. The program is meant to provide additional financial resources and incentives for departments to monitor those locations, which they may not be otherwise able to prioritize.
Florida’s Broward and Palm Beach counties, and programs in the cities of Hollywood, Tampa, and Jacksonville are slated to split almost $500,000 to help police issue citations along Brightline-Florida East Coast, Tri-Rail, and CSX Transportation tracks. Southern California cities in Metrolink territory and rural Hanford are receiving more than $281,000. Communities in eleven states ranging from Maine to Texas are to receive the balance of the enforcement funds.
The Railroad Trespassing and Suicide Prevention Grant’s $207,000 is being allocated to three projects along commuter rail and transit operations in South Florida, Boston and New York City. The proposals sponsored by the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, and the Metropolitan Transit Authority, respectively, include training rail employees to identify and respond to crisis situations.
In a statement, FRA Administrator Amit Bose said, “Through these grants, we will deter railroad trespassing and suicide through coordinated responses from a broad range of local organizations specializing in law enforcement, education, and mental health.”
According to the FRA, rail trespass fatalities claim 400 lives each year. In addition to those deaths, the agency claims an average of 236 people died by suicide each year from 2016 to 2021 and another 27 individuals have been injured annually by suicide attempts.
— Updated at 12:20 p.m. CDT to correct dollar amount going to California projects to more than $281,000; updated at 5 p.m. CDT to correct and clarify statistics on fatalities.
