May 9, 2023 | FRA, Headlines, Railroad Safety
(Source: Railway Age, May 8, 2023) The Belt Railway Company of Chicago (BRC) is seeking to join the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA) voluntary confidential program (C3RS) that allows railroads and their employees to report close calls. Full story: Railway...
May 4, 2023 | FRA, Headlines, Positive Train Control
(Source: Railway Track & Structures, May 2, 2023) Railroads now must seek Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) approval before temporarily disabling their Positive Train Control (PTC) systems during infrastructure upgrades or capital projects, according to a...
May 2, 2023 | FRA, Headlines
(Source: Federal Railroad Administration press release, May 1, 2023) WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) today issued a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) announcing the availability of $5 million to fund a rail research and development...
May 2, 2023 | FRA, Headlines, PSR, Train Length
(Source: Railfan & Railroad Magazine, May 2, 2023) A Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Safety Advisory, issued on April 27, stated that there had been at least three derailments on Class I railroads in recent months that were caused by long and heavy freight...
April 28, 2023 | FRA, Headlines, Train Length
(Source: Associated Press, April 28, 2023) Federal regulators are warning railroads that the long trains they favor can cause all kinds of problems and contribute to derailments, so they want the railroads to ensure their training and operating procedures account for...
April 25, 2023 | FRA, Headlines, PSR, Railroad Safety
(Source: Railway Age column by Grady C. Cothen Jr., April 23, 2023) The June 2022 White Paper supplemented here was devoted to “management of in-train forces.” This is an issue for trains of virtually all lengths and tonnages, but longer trains present special...
April 13, 2023 | FRA, Headlines, PSR, Railroad Safety
(Source: Trains Magazine, April 11, 2023) Rail labor leaders welcomed the safety advisory that the Federal Railroad Administration issued last week that encourages railroads to take steps to reduce the in-train forces that can cause long trains to derail. Full story:...
April 13, 2023 | East Palestine-NS, FRA, Headlines, NS, PSR
(Source: Trains Magazine, April 11, 2023) The new restrictions — part of the railroad’s broader push on safety in the wake of the disastrous Feb. 3 derailment in East Palestine, Ohio — have caused significant increases in terminal dwell, slowed the merchandise and...
April 11, 2023 | Derailment, East Palestine-NS, EPA, FRA, Headlines, NS
(Source: Yahoo News, April 10, 2023) Two months after the East Palestine disaster, amid mounting distrust and as lawsuits pile up against Norfolk Southern, the railroad giant maintains an outsized role in monitoring for contamination in and around East Palestine....
April 10, 2023 | Derailment, FRA, Headlines, PSR
(Source: Freight Waves, April 7, 2023) The six derailments shared a number of characteristics: Each involved trains that consisted of 125 or more rail cars and utilized DPUs. The six incidents also involved trains that exceeded 4,000 trailing tons. Full story: Freight...
