New numbers from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority show assaults on Long Island Rail Road employees are on the rise.

MTA police stats show over a 12-month period, the number of assault and harassment cases against LIRR employees jumped from 26 to 51.

The news comes after two conductors were assaulted on a Brooklyn-bound train last week.

As News 12 has reported, police say a 17-year-old beat two LIRR conductors with a ticket-issuing machine when they asked him to pay his fare. He was arrested on Thursday.

Anthony Simon, general chairman of the union that presents conductors, told News 12 that another conductor was punched in the chest earlier this month near Jamaica Station.

Simon says employees are seeing more police on the trains and platforms, like the MTA said would happen in September, but that protections need to go further.

"We need more patrols, we need to ban the people who assault our conductors and prosecute them at the fullest extent of the law," Simon said. "If you do that, it'll be a deterrent to the next person that is going to try to assault a conductor."

The LIRR president says the safety of workers remains a priority.

MTA board members say conductors are on the front lines dealing with frustrations from riders following the Grand Central Madison line addition and some called for more of a police presence on trains.