FRA Submits Securement NPRM to OMB

On Thursday (I’ve been on the road so I’m catching up on stuff) the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had received a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) from the DOT’s Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) concerning the securement of unattended equipment. This rulemaking was not covered in the Spring 2014 Unified Agenda, but it does not take any great imagination or regulatory insight to guess that this will address the train securement problems identified in the Canadian crude oil train catastrophe last year.

At the very least we can expect that the proposed rule will codify the requirements set out in Emergency Order #28. It remains to be seen if the rulemaking will go beyond those requirements. Back in April the Railroad Safety Advisory Committee approved draft language (.PDF File) for a rulemaking on this subject, but there is no requirement for DOT to use that consensus language.