The
Federal Railroad Administration and Technology
The Federal Railroad Administration creates and enforces safety regulations for rail, provides rail funding and researches rail improvement strategies.
FRA inspectors on the ground employ discretion to determine which cases are worthy of the lengthy and precise civil penalty procedure. This ensures that those violations most deserving of punishment are punished.
Allies and members of SMART-TD made history in 2024 by pushing the FRA to keep two people in the locomotive cab of freight trains. The fight is not over.
Safety
The Federal Railroad Administration implements a variety of safety measures to ensure the health of its employees and public. It is responsible for creating and enforcing regulations for rail safety. It also administers the funding for rail and conducts research on improvements to rail strategies and technologies. It also develops and implements a strategy to ensure the current rail services, infrastructure and capacity, and strategically expands and improves the national rail network. The department expects that all rail employers adhere to strict regulations that empower their employees and provide them with tools to be safe and successful. This includes participating in the confidential close call reporting system, setting up occupational health and safety committees that have full union participation, as well as anti-retaliation protections and providing employees with needed personal safety equipment.
Inspectors of the FRA are at the forefront of enforcing rail safety regulations and laws. They conduct routine inspections on equipment and investigate complaints from hundreds of people. Those who violate the rail safety laws could be subject to civil penalties. Safety inspectors from the agency have a broad decision-making power to determine if an act is within the legal definition of an act punishable with civil penalties. In addition the Office of Chief Counsel's safety department reviews all reports that are received by regional offices to determine legality before determining penalties. This discretion is exercised at the field and regional levels to ensure that civil penalties are only used in cases that warrant their use.
Rail employees must be aware of the rules and regulations that govern his actions and be aware of the standards to be guilty of a civil penalty-worthy offence. The agency does not believe that a person who acts on a supervisor's directive is guilty of committing a willful crime. The agency defines the "general railroad system of transportation" as the entire system over which goods and passengers travel within metropolitan and city areas, or between them. The trackage of a plant railroad in the steelmill isn't considered to be part of the general rail transportation system, despite the fact that it is physically connected.
Regulation
The Federal Railroad Administration is responsible for establishing regulations for trains, such as those relating to safety and the transportation of dangerous substances. The agency also manages financing for rail which includes loans and grants for infrastructure and service improvements. The agency collaborates with other DOT agencies as well as industry to develop strategies to improve the nation's rail infrastructure. This includes ensuring the current rail infrastructure and services, addressing the needs for new capacity, expanding the network strategically, and coordinating the regional and national system development and planning.
The agency is primarily responsible for freight transportation but also manages passenger transportation. The agency is working to provide more options for passengers and connect people to the places they would like to travel to. The agency is focused on improving the experience for passengers, improving the safety of the existing fleet, and ensuring the railway system continues to function efficiently.
Railroads are required to comply with a number of
federal employers liability regulations, including those that deal with the size and composition of crews on trains. This is a controversial one in recent years, with some states enacting legislation that requires two-person crews on trains. This final rule establishes federally the minimum size of crew requirements, ensuring that all railroads adhere to the same safety standards.
This rule also requires each railroad that operates a one-person train crew to inform FRA of the operation and submit an assessment of risk. This will allow FRA to assess the requirements of each operation to those of a two-person standard crew operation. This rule also changes the review standard of a special approval request from determining if an operation is "consistent" with railroad safety, to determining if the operation is as secure or less risky than a two-person crew operation.
During the period of public comments for this rule, a lot of people expressed their support for a requirement for a two person crew. In a letter to the editor 29 people voiced their concerns that a single member of the crew will not be capable of responding with the speed required to respond to incidents or train malfunctions at grade crossings or assist emergency response personnel on a highway-rail level crossing. The commenters pointed out that human factors account for more than half of railroad accidents and they think that a bigger crew would help ensure the safety of the train and the cargo it transports.
Technology
Trains for passenger and freight use different technologies to increase efficiency, improve security, and increase safety. The rail industry lingo contains a myriad of specific terms and acronyms, but some of the more significant developments include machine vision systems, instrumented rail inspection systems, driverless trains rolling data centers, and drones that are not piloted (commonly called drones).
Technology isn't merely replacing jobs; it's helping people to do their job more efficiently and with greater security. Passenger railroads use smartphones apps and contactless fare cards to increase passengership and boost the efficiency of their system. Other developments, like autonomous rail vehicles, are inching closer to reality.
The Federal Railroad Administration, as part of its ongoing efforts to promote safe reliable, affordable, and cost-effective transportation in the United States is focusing on modernizing the rail infrastructure. This is a multi-billion-dollar effort that will see bridges and tunnels rebuilt tracks, power systems and tracks upgraded, and stations rebuilt or upgraded. The FRA's rail improvement program will be greatly extended by the recently passed bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
The agency's Office of Research, Development and Technology is a central element in this initiative. The National Academies' recent review of the office revealed that it excelled at engaging, maintaining communications using inputs from a variety of stakeholders. It is still required to be aware of how its research contributes towards the department's main goal of ensuring the safety of people and goods via railways.
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 association that focuses on research, policy, and standard setting, has established a Technical Advisory Group on Autonomous Train Operations to help in developing industry standards to implement the technology.
The FRA is interested in the group's development of a taxonomy for automated rail vehicles, a system that defines clearly and consistently the different levels of automation. This could be applicable to both rail transit and vehicles on the road.