Hours of Service Compliance Manual Passenger Operations
The Federal Hours of Service Act was enacted by Congress on March 4, 1907, to promote the safety of employees and travelers on railroads by limiting the hours of service of railroad employees. The Hours of Service Act was amended several times, and in 1994, it was recodified and is now found at Title 49 United States Code (U.S.C.) Chapter 211, Sections 21101–21109. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and others now refer to it as the hours of service laws (HSL). The most significant changes to the HSL resulted from the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (RSIA). Most of the changes were to § 21103, limitations on duty hours of train employees, and include a monthly time limit on all service performed for a railroad and time spent waiting for or in deadhead transportation from duty to a point of final release after the 12-hour point in a consecutive service duty tour. The new provisions also restrict a train employee to 6 or 7 consecutive days of initiating on-duty periods followed by 48 or 72 consecutive hours off duty, and also require a minimum statutory off-duty period of 10 hours. In addition to changing some provisions and adding several more, the HSL, as amended by the RSIA, gave FRA the authority to create regulations governing the hours of service of train employees of commuter and intercity passenger railroad carriers. FRA published its final hours of service rules for train employees working in commuter or intercity passenger rail operations on August 12, 2011. The final rule became effective on October 15, 2011, and can be found at Title 49 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 228, Subpart F. This compliance manual specifically addresses commuter and intercity passenger rail operations, and it does not apply to train employees engaged in freight operations on freight railroads This manual provides clarification on hours of service requirements found at 49 CFR Part 228, Hours of Service Recordkeeping, and federal railroad administration (FRA) hours of service interpretations and policies. Because of the amount of guidance that exists to address the complexity of hours of service requirements, along with the diversity of railroad operations, it is necessary to provide comprehensive guidance and consolidate the majority of this information into one manual to ensure standardized application and compliance. This manual is not intended to be the primary reference document for hours of service requirements; 49 CFR Part 228, FRA Operating Practices Technical Bulletins, and official FRA letters addressing hours of service issues will remain the primary reference documents when dealing with Federal hours of service requirements. This manual also is not intended to apply to freight operations; a separate compliance manual addresses the different hours of service requirements for those types of operations.
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Availability:
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Corporate Authors:
Federal Railroad Administration
Office of Railroad Safety
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC United States 20590 - Publication Date: 2014-5
Language
- English
Media Info
- Media Type: Digital/other
- Features: Appendices; Figures; References;
- Pagination: 340p
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Compliance; Employees; Hours of labor; Manuals; Passenger service; Policy; Railroad safety; Railroads; Recordkeeping
- Subject Areas: Law; Passenger Transportation; Railroads; Safety and Human Factors; I10: Economics and Administration; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01526777
- Record Type: Publication
- Files: TRIS, USDOT
- Created Date: May 29 2014 10:15AM