by Seth BeazleyThe Federal Railroad Administration and Technology
The Federal Railroad Administration creates and enforces rail safety regulations It also provides rail funding and researches rail improvement strategies.
FRA field inspectors use discretion to decide which cases merit the precise and time-consuming civil penalty process. This helps ensure that the most serious violations are penalized.
SMART-TD and its allies created history by 2024 when they convinced the FRA that two persons should be allowed in the cabs of freight trains. The fight continues.
Safety
The Federal Railroad Administration implements a number of safety measures to ensure the health of employees as well as the public. It formulates and enforces regulations for rail safety and oversees the funding for rail. It also studies strategies for improving rail infrastructure and technologies. It also creates and implements a plan to ensure that current rail services, infrastructure and capacity and strategically expands and enhances the national rail network. The department requires all rail employers to adhere to the strictest rules and regulations, and empower their employees and provide them with tools to succeed and stay safe. This includes participating in the secure close call reporting system, setting up occupational health and safety committees with full union participation, as well as anti-retaliation safeguards, and providing employees with personal protective equipment.
Inspectors of the FRA are at the leading edge of enforcing rail safety regulations and laws. They conduct routine inspections of equipment and conduct a multitude of investigations of complaints of noncompliance. Civil penalties may be imposed on those who violate railroad safety laws. Safety inspectors from the agency are able to decide on the extent to which an individual violation is in line with the legal definition of a criminal penalty-worthy act. In addition the Office of Chief Counsel’s safety department reviews all reports received from regional offices to determine their legal sufficiency before assessing penalties. This discretion is exercised at the regional and field levels to ensure that civil penalties are only used when they are necessary.
To be guilty of a civil offense an employee of a railroad must know the rules and regulations that govern the conduct of his or her employees. They also must be aware that they ignore these rules. However the agency doesn’t take any person who is acting under a direction from a supervisor to have committed a willful violation. The agency defines “general railroad system” as the whole network that carries goods and passengers between metropolitan areas and cities. The trackage of a plant railroad within the steelmill isn’t considered to be part of the overall rail transportation system, despite the fact that it is physically connected.
Regulation
The Federal Railroad Administration sets train regulations, ranging from those related to safety and the movement of hazardous materials. The agency is responsible for managing railway finance, including grants and loan for infrastructure and service improvement. The agency works with other DOT agencies and with industry to devise strategies to improve the country’s railroad system. This includes ensuring the current rail infrastructure and services, addressing the need for additional capacity, expanding the network strategically, and coordinating national and regional system development and planning.
The agency is responsible for freight transport, but also manages passenger transportation. The agency is aiming to provide more options for passengers and connect people with the places they want to go. The agency’s primary focus is on enhancing the experience for passengers and enhancing the safety of the existing fleet, and ensuring that the rail system continues to operate efficiently.
Railroads must abide by a variety of federal regulations, relating to the size of crews on trains. This is an issue of contention in recent years, with a few states passing legislation that requires two-person crews on trains. This final rule outlines the minimum size of crew requirements at an international level, and ensures that all railroads are subject to consistent safety standards.
This rule also requires each railroad that has a single-person train crew to notify FRA of the operation and submit a risk assessment. This will enable FRA to assess the requirements of each operation with the standard two-person crew operation. Additionally, this rule changes the criteria for reviewing an approval petition that is based on determining whether the operation is “consistent with railroad safety” to determining whether approving the operation would be as safer or more secure than an operation with two crew members.
During the public comment period for this rule, a large number of people supported a two-person crew requirement. In a formal letter 29 people expressed their concerns that a single crew member would not be capable of responding in a timely manner to train malfunctions or incidents at grade crossings or assist emergency response personnel at a highway-rail level crossing. The commenters noted that human factors account for more than half railroad accidents, and they think that a bigger crew will ensure the safety of both the train and the cargo it transports.
Technology
Freight and passenger railroads employ various technologies to increase efficiency, add security, increase safety and much more. Rail industry jargon includes various specific terms and acronyms. Some of the most prominent include machine vision systems (also known as drones) and rail-inspection systems that are instrumented, driverless train rolling data centers and unmanned aerial vehicle (also called drones).
Technology isn’t just about replacing certain jobs. It allows people to do their jobs better and with greater security. Passenger railroads are using smartphones apps and contactless fare payment cards to increase ridership and make the system more efficient. Other developments, like autonomous rail vehicles, are moving closer to reality.
As part of its ongoing efforts to improve safe, reliable and affordable transportation for the nation The Federal Railroad Administration is focused on modernizing its rail infrastructure. This is a multi-billion-dollar project that will see bridges and tunnels repaired as well as tracks and power systems upgraded and stations rebuilt or upgraded. FRA’s recently passed bipartisan infrastructure fela law firm will dramatically grow the agency’s rail improvement programs.
The Office of Research, Development and Technology of the agency is a key part of this initiative. The National Academies’ recent review of the office concluded that it excelled at engaging, maintaining communications with inputs from a broad range of stakeholders. But it still needs to be more focused on how its research aids in the department’s main objective of ensuring the safe movement of goods and people by rail.
One area in which the agency could be able to improve its effectiveness is in identifying and assisting the advancement of automated train systems and technologies. The Association of American Railroads, the main freight rail industry association that focuses on policy, research 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 to describe automated rail vehicles, a system that defines clearly and consistently different levels of automation. This could apply to rail transit as well as on-road vehicles. The agency will also want to know the level of safety risk that the industry believes is associated with the introduction of fully automated operation and whether the industry is considering adding additional safeguards to mitigate that risk.
Innovation
Railroads are using technology to boost worker safety and make business processes more efficient and ensure that the cargo that they transport arrives at its destination intact. These innovations range from sensors and cameras that monitor freight, to new railcar designs that help keep dangerous cargo safe during transportation. Certain of these technologies enable railroads to dispatch emergency personnel directly to sites of accidents to minimize the risk and minimize damages to property and individuals.
One of the most prominent innovations in rail is Positive Train Control (PTC) which will prevent collisions between trains and train, situations where trains are on tracks they shouldn’t be and other accidents that are caused by human error. The system is comprised of three parts of onboard locomotive systems that track the train; wayside networks that communicate with the locomotive and a massive server that gathers and analyzes data.
Passenger railroads are also embracing technology to bolster security and safety. For instance, Amtrak is experimenting with drones to assist passenger security personnel in finding passengers and other items onboard trains in the event of an emergency. Amtrak is also looking into ways to utilize drones. They could be used to check bridges and other infrastructures or to replace the lighting on railway towers that are hazardous for workers to climb.
Other technologies that could be utilized for railways for passengers include smart track technology that can detect the presence of objects or people on the tracks and send out an alert to drivers when it’s unsafe to proceed. These types of technologies can be particularly beneficial in detecting unsafe crossings as well as other issues that can arise during times when traffic volumes are lowest and there are fewer people around to witness an accident.
Another important technological advancement in the rail industry is telematics which allows shippers, railroads and other stakeholders to view the condition and status of a traincar by real-time tracking. Such capabilities give railcar operators and their crews more accountability and visibility and can assist them in improving efficiency, avoid unnecessary maintenance and reduce delays in the delivery of freight to customers.