The
Federal Railroad Administration and Technology
The Federal Railroad Administration creates and enforces rail safety regulations, provides rail funding and studies strategies for improving rail safety.
FRA field inspectors employ discretion to decide on which cases merit the precise and time-consuming civil penalty process. This ensures that the violations most deserving of punishment are punished.
Members of SMART-TD and their allies have made history in 2024 by pushing the FRA to ensure that two people are in the locomotive cab of freight trains. The fight is not over.
Safety
The Federal Railroad Administration implements a variety of safety measures to protect the health of employees and public. It is responsible for developing and enforcing safety regulations for rail. It also administers rail funding and conducts research on improvements to rail strategies and technological developments. It also creates and implements a strategy to ensure that current rail services, infrastructure and capacity, and strategically develops and enhances the national rail network. The department expects all rail companies to adhere to the strictest rules and regulations, empower their workers and provide them with tools to succeed and stay safe. This includes the confidential close-call reporting system, establishing labor-management occupational safety and health committees with full union participation and antiretaliation provisions and
Federal Employers’ Liability Act giving employees the necessary personal protective gear.
Inspectors of the FRA are at the forefront of enforcing safety on rail regulations and laws. They conduct regular inspections of equipment and conduct hundreds of investigations of complaints of noncompliance. Civil penalties may be applied to those who break rail safety laws. Safety inspectors from the agency have a broad discretion on whether an individual violation is in line with the legal definition of a criminal penalty-worthy act. The Office of Chief Counsel’s safety division also examines the reports that regional offices submit to ensure that they are legal before assessing penalties. The exercise of this discretion at the field and regional levels ensures that the exacting, time-consuming civil penalty process is utilized only in cases which truly warrant the deterrent impact of a civil penalty.
To be convicted of a civil violation, a rail employee must know the rules and regulations that govern his or her actions. They must also be aware of and not adhere to these rules. However the agency does not take any person who follows a directive from a supervisor as having committed an intentional violation. The agency defines "general railroad system" as the whole network that carries goods and passengers within and between metropolitan areas and cities. A plant railroad's trackage in the steel mill isn't considered to be part of the overall rail system of transportation even though it is physically connected to it.
Regulation
The Federal Railroad Administration sets train regulations, including those pertaining to safety and the movement of hazardous materials. The agency oversees rail finance, including loans and grants for infrastructure and service improvement. The agency works with other DOT agencies as well as industry to develop strategies to improve the nation's rail system. This includes ensuring the existing rail infrastructure and services, responding to the demands for capacity expansion and expanding the network strategically and coordinating national and regional system planning and development.
While most of the agency's activities are focused on freight transportation, it also handles the transportation of passengers. The agency is working to offer more options for passenger travel and connect people to the places they'd like to travel to. The agency's primary focus is on improving the experience of passengers, enhancing safety of the existing fleet and ensuring the rail network is operating efficiently.
Railroads must adhere to a number of federal regulations, including those related to the size of crews on trains. In recent years the issue has become a source of controversy. Certain states have passed legislation that requires two-person teams on trains. This final rule establishes federally the minimum size of crew requirements, ensuring that all railroads adhere to the same safety standards.
This also requires every railroad that operates a single-person train crew to notify FRA of the operation and submit a risk assessment. This will enable FRA to evaluate the characteristics of each operation to those of a two-person standard crew operation. This rule also alters the review standard of a special approval request from determining whether an operation is "consistent" with railroad safety, to determining if the operation is as secure or safer than two-person crew operation.
During the time of public comment on this rule, a lot of people voiced their support for a requirement of a two person crew. In a formal letter 29 people voiced their concern that a single member of the crew will not be capable of responding in a timely manner to train accidents or malfunctions at grade crossings, or assist emergency personnel on the highway-rail level crossing. Commenters emphasized that human factors are responsible for a majority of railroad accidents. They believe that a larger team could ensure the security of the train as well as its cargo.
Technology
Railroads for passenger and freight use a wide array of technologies to enhance efficiency, increase security, increase safety and more. The rail industry lingo includes a variety of unique terms and acronyms, but some of the most notable innovations include machine vision systems, instrumented rail inspection systems, driverless trains, rolling data centers, and unmanned aerial vehicles (commonly called drones).
Technology isn't just about replacing certain jobs. It allows people to perform their jobs better and more safely. Railroads that transport passengers use smartphones and contactless fare cards in order to increase ridership and improve the efficiency of their system. Other innovations, like autonomous rail vehicles, are inching closer to reality.
As part of its ongoing efforts to ensure secure, reliable and affordable transportation for the entire nation In its ongoing effort to ensure safe, reliable and affordable transportation for the nation, the
Federal Railroad Administration is focused on modernizing its rail infrastructure. This multi-billion-dollar project will see tunnels, bridges tracks, power systems and tracks updated, and stations renovated or replaced. The FRA's rail improvements program will be substantially extended by the recently passed bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
The agency's Office of Research, Development and Technology is a major element in this initiative. The National Academies' recent review of the office revealed that it excelled at engaging, maintaining communications with inputs from a wide range of stakeholders. But it must focus more on how its research helps the department achieve its primary strategic goal of ensuring safe movement of people and goods by rail.
The agency could increase its efficiency by identifying and implementing automated train systems and technology. The Association of American Railroads, the main freight rail industry business organization that is focused on research, policy, and standardization, has established a Technical Advisory Group on Autonomous Train Operations to help develop industry standards for the implementation of the technology.
FRA is interested in the development of an automated rail taxonomy, which is a standard that will clearly and consistently define the different levels of automation that could be applicable to both on-road and rail transit vehicles.