# 119-s-5492: Safe Transit Act

119-s-5492, Safe Transit Act, is a 119th Congress bill sponsored by Sen. Hagerty, Bill [R-TN] (R-TN); status introduced; PRIA reads it as touching household money (as of 2026-10-10).

- Canonical: https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-5492
- As of: 2026-10-10
- Plain-text twin of the page above; the HTML and this file carry the same facts.

## Facts
- Bill: 119-s-5492
- Congress: 119
- Title: Safe Transit Act
- Status: introduced
- Introduced: 2026-09-23
- Sponsor: Sen. Hagerty, Bill [R-TN] (R-TN)
- Cosponsors: 0
- Policy area: Transportation and Public Works
- Touches household money: yes
- Last recorded action: 2026-10-10

## Summary

**Ties federal transit grants to safety, crime-prevention, and public reporting.** This bill would require transit systems to spend more on safety, add cameras and event recorders to new vehicles, create a public family-friendly scorecard, set a 3% safety set-aside, and allow penalties for noncompliance while banning broad $0-fare programs in very large urban bus systems. - Families: Would create a Family Friendly Transit Scorecard with letter grades and require systems to display those grades at stations and terminals, aiming to improve accessibility and reliability. - Transit workers: Would fund assault-mitigation infrastructure, operator barriers, inward/outward-facing cameras, de-escalation training, and allow hiring or contracting of transit officers to boost worker safety. - Riders and low-income passengers: Would prohibit fully free-fare programs in urbanized areas of 200,000+ people that operate at least 100 buses during peak hours, while allowing narrow exceptions like emergencies and fully subsidized corridors. - Transit agencies and local governments: Would require a mandatory not-less-than 3% §5307 set-aside for safety and crime-prevention projects, expand incident reporting to the National Transit Database, and authorize withholding up to 100% of formula funds for persistent noncompliance starting in FY2028.

## Provisions PRIA read

- Ban on most free rides in big cities: cost, medium. This bill would ban most $0 fare programs in urbanized areas with 200,000 or more people that operate at least 100 buses at peak hours. Exceptions would cover seniors, people with disabilities, children, students, veterans, short event or disaster programs, and programs fully paid by a third party…
- More safety funding and standards for transit: mixed, high. This bill would require transit agencies that get section 5307 grants to spend at least 3% of those funds each year on system safety, crime prevention, and personal safety projects. The eligible uses would expand to include lighting, inward and outward cameras, event recorders, operator barriers, f…
- New penalties and fund withholdings: mixed, high. This bill would make formula grants conditional on annual certifications and progress toward safety, crime-prevention, and family-friendliness targets. If a recipient fails to make progress, the Secretary could withhold up to 100% of apportioned formula funds after a 30-day cure period. Beginning F…
- Reporting apps, cameras, and scorecards: mixed, high. This bill would require large transit recipients (200,000+ urbanized area) to make an electronic app for passengers to report assaults and other safety problems. The Secretary would create an annual Family Friendly Transit Scorecard and methodology and large systems would have to post a letter grad…

## Related bills

- 119-s-3290: Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2026
- 119-s-4952: Protecting American Taxpayers Act
- 119-s-1748: Kids Online Safety Act
- 119-s-5252: BLADE Act
- 119-s-292: Educational Choice for Children Act of 2025
- 119-s-394: GENIUS Act of 2025

## Sources
- [119-s-5492 on Congress.gov](https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/5492)

## Related
- [119-s-3290: Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2026](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-3290)
- [119-s-4952: Protecting American Taxpayers Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-4952)
- [119-s-1748: Kids Online Safety Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-1748)
- [119-s-5252: BLADE Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-5252)
- [119-s-292: Educational Choice for Children Act of 2025](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-292)
- [119-s-394: GENIUS Act of 2025](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-394)
- [All bills in Congress](https://policyrisk.com/legislation)

Source: PRIA, https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-5492 (as of 2026-10-10).