Federal Railroad Administration Action Plan for Addressing Critical Railroad Safety Issues

The railroad industry’s overall safety record has improved over the last decade and most safety trends are moving in the right direction. However, significant train accidents continue to occur, and the train accident rate has not shown substantive improvement in recent years. Moreover, recent train accidents have highlighted specific issues that need prompt government and industry attention, and the strong growth of rail and highway traffic continue to drive up exposure at highway-rail grade crossings. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is aggressively addressing these critical issues and implementing the plan outlined below to improve railroad safety. The FRA’s safety program is increasingly guided by careful analysis of accident, inspection, and other safety data. FRA attempts to direct both its regulatory and compliance efforts toward those areas involving the highest safety risks. This proactive approach to managing risks is constantly being honed and improved. This action plan embodies that approach and will: target the most frequent, highest risk causes of accidents; focus FRA’s oversight and inspection resources; and accelerate research efforts that have the potential to mitigate the largest risks. The FRA’s plan includes initiatives in several areas: reducing human factor-caused train accidents; acting to address the serious problem of fatigue among railroad operating employees; improving track safety; enhancing hazardous materials safety and emergency preparedness; better focusing FRA’s resources (inspections and enforcement) on areas of greatest safety concern; and improving highway-rail grade crossing safety.

• Record URL:
  http://www.fra.dot.gov/Page/P0001
• 
• Corporate Authors:

  Federal Railroad Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Publication Date: 2005-5-16

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: Figures; Tables;
• Pagination: 10p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crash data; Data analysis; Disaster preparedness; Emergency management; Fatigue (Physiological condition); Hazardous materials; Human factors in crashes; Inspection; Operators (Persons); Oversight; Railroad crashes; Railroad grade crossings; Railroad safety; Railroad tracks; Research; Risk management; Safety programs; Strategic planning
• Identifier Terms: U.S. Federal Railroad Administration
• Uncontrolled Terms: Enforcement
• Subject Areas: Railroads; Research; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01001000
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Jun 15 2005 2:14PM