CLEVELAND, June 30 — The survivability of railroad locomotive event recorders or “black boxes” will be improved to enhance the quality of post-accident investigations as a result of a final rule entered into the Federal Register on June 30.
Under the rule, developed by the Federal Railroad Administration through the Railroad Safety Advisory Committee (RSAC) process, event recorders will be hardened to prevent the loss of data from exposure to fire, impact shock, fluid immersion, and other potential damage resulting from train accidents. Older event recorders that rely on magnetic tape for data storage will be phased out over the next four years.
Currently, locomotive event recorders capture such information as train speed, use of automatic air brakes, throttle position and cab signal indications. The new rule requires that new data required be captured by event recorders, including horn activation, cruise control functions and train control operating directives sent to the engineer’s onboard display.
Through the RSAC process, the BLET did a tremendous amount of work on this project to ensure that the final rule addresses many concerns locomotive engineers and trainmen have regarding new technologies in the industry.
The FRA is amending its existing regulations in four major ways:
• By requiring that a new locomotive have an event recorder with a “hardened” memory module, proven by a requirement that the memory module preserve stored data throughout a sequence of prescribed tests;
• By requiring that this event recorder on a new locomotive collect certain additional types of information;
• By improving standards for rail companies to inspect, test and maintain all event recorders; and
• By requiring the phasing out, over a four-year period, of event recorders on existing locomotives that use magnetic tape as a data storage medium and their replacement with event recorders with a certified survivable version of its previous event recorder.
The rule requires railroads to keep data stored on event recorders involved in accidents for one year, up from the current 30-day requirement.
This regulation has been developed over the past eight years through the RSAC process and has been driven by recommendations from the NTSB.
The Final Rule effective date is October 1, 2005. The final rule is available on the FRA’s web site at www.fra.dot.gov and in docket number FRA-2003-16357 at dms.dot.gov.
It is also available on the BLET website at:
https://www.ble-t.org/pr/pdf/EventRecorderFinalRule.pdf