Economy

Transportation

Federal Railroad Administration Issues Final Rule to Improve Rail Flaw Detection

By Patrick Ambrosio
pambrosio@bna.com

Jan. 24 — The Federal Railroad Administration published a final rule Jan. 24 to improve the process of detecting flaws in the nation's rail infrastructure (79 Fed. Reg. 4,234). ... The rule, which is effective March 25, sets minimum qualification requirements for rail flaw detection equipment operators and revises requirements for the frequency of rail inspections. It also revises regulatory requirements for recordkeeping related to rail safety inspections.

The final rule implements Section 403 of the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (Pub. L. No. 110-432), which required the Transportation Department to conduct a study of rail track issues to determine if track inspection intervals and track remedial action requirements needed to be amended. The FRA completed that study in 2011 and consulted the Railroad Safety Advisory Committee to address the recommendations of that study.
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Training, Inspection Frequency

The FRA's final rule establishes a new provision requiring all rail flaw detection tests to be performed by qualified operators who completed documented training programs. The final rule establishes minimum training, evaluation and documentation requirements for equipment operators who are qualified. ... It will be the responsibility of the owner of the rail track to ensure that any company hired to provide rail flaw detection is in compliance with the new training and qualification requirements, according to the FRA.
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To contact the reporter on this story: Patrick Ambrosio in Washington at pambrosio@bna.com

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Larry Pearl at lpearl@bna.com

For More Information

The Jan. 24 final rule is available at http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2014-01-24/pdf/2014-01387.pdf.