Monday, July 18, 2022

OMB Approves FRA Train Crew Staffing NPRM

Last week the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had approved a notice of proposed rulemaking from the DOT’s Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) on “Train Crew Staffing”.

According to the Spring 2022 Unified Agenda entry for this rulemaking:

“This rulemaking would address the potential safety impact of one-person train operations, including appropriate measures to mitigate an accident's impact and severity, and the patchwork of State laws concerning minimum crew staffing requirements. This rulemaking would address the issue of minimum requirements for the size of different train crew staffs, depending on the type of operations.”

I do not intend to get this far down into the weeds of railroad operations in this blog, but if this rulemaking, as expected, increases train crew staffing requirements, this will have at least some adverse impact on the problems Class I railroads with service issues.

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