The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has disbanded its Railroad Safety Advisory Committee (RSAC), an important venue for labor, management, shippers and Federal regulators to collaboratively discuss and develop rules to improve safety in the railroad industry. Letters terminating the RSAC we emailed to committee members, including the three BLET representatives who sit on the committee, after the close of business on Wednesday evening, August 13.
Railroads were not the only mode of transportation to see the elimination of safety advisory boards. According to Politico, the RSAC was one of about two dozen federal safety advisory committees that were terminated, including similar safety oversight committees for commercial aviation and maritime.
Trains Magazine, in an article on the RSAC termination, described the advisory body as “the FRA’s formal mechanism for collaborative safety rulemaking and policy development. It was established in 1996 to give railroads, labor unions, suppliers, and other stakeholders a structured way to advise FRA on safety matters. The committee had included 51 voting members drawn from 26 different stakeholder organizations. FRA can accept, modify, or reject the committee’s recommendations. But the recommendations often form the basis for proposed rules under the Federal Railroad Safety Act.”
“Disbanding RSAC simply forces work already in progress to be lost and throws away time and effort put in by the group,” said BLET Vice President and National Legislative Representative Vince Verna. “This work has been financed by the organizations sending representatives to RSAC — not the federal treasury.”
It is unclear if the RSAC is temporarily disbanded or permanently dissolved. More information will be reported as it becomes available.