Review - HR 9074 Introduced – 2-Person Freight Crew

Last month, Rep Sykes (D,OH) introduced HR 9074, the Safe Freight Act of 2024. The bill would mandate the use of 2-person rail crews for most freight train operations and provides limited exceptions to the requirement. No new funding is authorized by the bill.

The bill would add a new §20154, Freight train crew size safety standards, to 49 USC,

Moving Forward

Sykes is a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. This means that there may be sufficient influence to see the bill considered by the Committee. Having said that, with the FRA recently completing a rule making on the subject, I would expect the Committee leadership to resist revisiting this subject until there has been a chance to see how the recent regulatory change works in practice.

 

For more information on the provisions of this bill, including a brief look at the recent regulatory change, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-9074-introduced - subscription required.

FRA Sends Train Crew Size Final Rule to OMB

Yesterday, the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had received a final rule from DOT’s Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) on “Train Crew Staffing”. The notice of proposed rulemaking for this action was published on July 28^th, 2022.

According to the Fall 2023 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 train crews, depending on the type of operations. In an effort to encourage public participation, FRA extended the comment period from 60 to 146 days and held a public hearing on December 14, 2022.”

While this rulemaking is a little more down-in-the-weeds in railroad operations than I typically cover in this blog, the NPRM contained specific provisions (see my post) for hazmat trains that may affect loading operations at some chemical facilities.