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The Federal Railroad Administration and Technology

The Federal Railroad Administration creates and enforces safety regulations for rail, provides rail funding and conducts research on strategies to improve rail infrastructure.

FRA field inspectors use discretion to determine which cases warrant the exact and lengthy civil penalty process. This allows them to ensure that the most serious violations are penalized.

Members of SMART-TD and their allies made history in 2024 when they began 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 has a variety of safety measures in place to safeguard the health and safety of employees as well as the general public. It creates and enforces regulations for rail safety, administers rail funding and researches rail improvement strategies and technology. It also develops the implementation and maintenance of an action plan to maintain the current rail infrastructure and services. It also expands and improves strategically the national rail network. The department expects all rail employers to adhere to strict rules and regulations, and empower their employees and provide them with the tools needed to be successful and safe. This includes participating in the confidential close-call reporting system, setting up occupational health and safety committees that have full participation from unions and anti-retaliation safeguards, and providing employees with the necessary personal protective equipment.

Inspectors of the FRA are at the forefront of enforcing safety on rail laws and regulations. They conduct routine inspections of equipment and conduct hundreds of investigations into complaints of non-compliance. Anyone who violates the safety rules for rail can be penalized civilly. The agency's safety inspectors are able to decide on the extent to which an incident falls within the legal definition of a civil penalty-worthy act. The Office of Chief Counsel’s safety division also scrutinizes the reports that regional offices submit to ensure that they are legal prior to imposing penalties. The exercise of this discretion at the regional and field levels helps ensure that the time-consuming, costly civil penalty process is used only in cases that truly warrant the deterrent effect of a civil penalty.

A rail employee must be aware of the rules and regulations that govern his actions and knowingly disregard those guidelines to commit a criminal offense that is punishable by a civil penalty. The agency does not consider that an individual who acts upon a directive from a supervisor is guilty of committing a willful crime. The agency defines "general railroad system" as the entire system that transports passengers and goods between metropolitan areas and cities. The trackage of a plant railroad within the steel mill is not considered to be part of the overall rail transportation system, even though it's physically connected.

Regulation

The Federal Railroad Administration is responsible for establishing regulations for trains including those related to safety and the movement of hazardous substances. The agency is responsible for managing railway finance, including grants and loan to improve service and infrastructure. The agency collaborates with other DOT agencies and the industry to develop strategies for improving the nation's railroad system. This includes maintaining existing rail infrastructure and services as well as in addition to addressing the need for additional capacity and strategically expanding the network, and coordinating regional and national systems planning and development.

While most of the agency's work is focused on freight transportation, it also manages the transportation of passengers. The agency is working to connect people to places they'd like to visit and offer more choices for travel. The agency's primary focus is on improving the experience of passengers, enhancing safety of the existing fleet, and ensuring that the rail network is operating efficiently.

Railroads are required to comply with a range of federal regulations, including those relating to the size and composition of train crews. This is an issue of contention in recent years, with some states enacting legislation that requires two-person crews on trains. The final rule codifies the minimum requirements for crew size at an international level, and ensures that all railroads are subject to consistent safety standards.

This law also requires that each railroad operating with a crew of one notify FRA and submit an analysis of risk. This will allow FRA to better understand the specifics of each operation and compare them to those of a normal two-person crew operation. In addition, this rule changes the standard of review for a special approval petition from to determining whether an operation is "consistent with railroad safety" to determining if approving the operation would be as safe or safer than an operation with two crew members.

During the period of public comment on this rule, a lot of people voiced their support for a requirement for two people on the crew. In a form letter 29 people voiced their concern that a single crewmember will not be in a position to respond in a timely manner to incidents or train malfunctions at grade crossings or assist emergency response personnel at the highway-rail level crossing. Commenters emphasized that human factors are responsible for more than half of all railroad accidents. They believe that a larger team could ensure the safety of the train and its cargo.

Technology

Railroads that transport passengers and freight employ a wide array of technologies to increase efficiency, add safety, boost security and more. The rail industry vernacular includes many specific terms and acronyms, however, some of the most notable innovations include machine vision systems, instrumented rail inspection systems, driverless trains, rolling data centers and unmanned aerial vehicles (commonly known as drones).





Technology isn't only able to replace certain jobs. It allows people to perform their jobs more effectively and more safely. Railroads that transport passengers are using smartphones and contactless fare payment cards in order to boost ridership and improve the efficiency of the system. Other innovations, such as autonomous rail vehicles, are moving closer to becoming reality.

The Federal Railroad Administration, as part of its ongoing efforts to improve safe affordable, reliable, and secure transportation in America is focusing on modernizing the rail infrastructure. This is a multi-billion-dollar effort that will see bridges and tunnels repaired as well as tracks and power systems upgraded, and stations reconstructed or upgraded. FRA's recently passed bipartisan infrastructure law will substantially expand the agency's rail improvements programs.

The agency's Office of Research, Development and Technology is a central element in this initiative. The most recent National Academies review of the office revealed that it was successful in engaging in a continuous dialogue and utilizing the inputs of a wide range of stakeholders. It must continue to focus on how its research contributes to the department's primary objective of ensuring the safety of people and goods via railways.

The agency could enhance its effectiveness by identifying and supporting automated train systems and technology. The Association of American Railroads, the primary freight rail business organization that is focused on policy, research and standardization and has created a Technical Advisory Group on Autonomous Train Operations to assist in the development of industry standards for implementing the technology.

The FRA is interested in the group’s creation of a taxonomy for automated rail vehicles which defines clearly and consistently different levels of automation. This could apply to both rail transit and vehicles on the road. The agency will also need to understand the level of safety risk that the industry sees with the introduction of fully automated operation and whether or not the industry is considering adding additional protections to minimize the risk.

Innovation

Rail companies are adopting technology to enhance worker safety, increase efficiency in business processes, and ensure that the freight they transport is delivered intact. Examples of this kind of technological advancement range from the use of cameras and sensors to track freight, to the latest railcar designs that keep hazardous cargo safe during transport. Some of these technologies even provide a way for railroads to send emergency response personnel to locations of accidents so they can swiftly mitigate damage and reduce the risk to property and lives.

One of the most prominent innovations in rail is Positive Train Control (PTC) that will stop collisions between trains and train, situations where trains are on tracks where they shouldn't be, and other accidents resulting from human errors. railroad injury fela lawyer consists of three parts of onboard locomotive systems that track the train; wayside networks that communicate with the locomotive and a massive server that analyzes and collects data.

Passenger railroads also embrace technology to improve safety and security. For instance, Amtrak is experimenting with the use of drones to aid security personnel in finding passengers and other items onboard trains in the event of an emergency. The company is also looking into other ways to use drones, for instance, using drones to conduct inspections of bridges and other infrastructure, such as replacing the lights on railway towers, which can be dangerous for workers to climb.

Other technologies that can be utilized for passenger railroads include smart track technology, which is able to detect the presence of people or objects on the tracks and send out an alert to drivers when it's unsafe for them to proceed. These technologies are especially effective in detecting unsafe crossings or other problems in the evenings when traffic is less and there are less witnesses to an accident.

Telematics is a significant technological advance in the railway industry. It allows railways, shippers and other parties to monitor a traincar in real-time. These capabilities give railcar owners and their crews more accountability and visibility and can assist them in improving efficiency, prevent unnecessary maintenance and avoid delays in the delivery of freight to customers.