The Federal Railroad Administration

The Federal Railroad Administration is among the 10 agencies of DOT that are responsible for intermodal transportation. Its goal is to facilitate the safe and efficient transportation of people and goods.

FRA field inspectors routinely inspect railroad tracks, signals and train control systems, as and operating practices. They also investigate complaints.

Definition

A federal railroad is a railway in the United States that is controlled by the federal government. Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation, formulates and enforces regulations for railways, administers railroad funds, and conducts research to improve rail transportation. The FRA is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation's intermodal transportation division and its top executives are the Administrator and the Deputy Administrator.

The agency is responsible for all passenger and freight transportation that uses the nation's railway network. The agency also consolidates the federal funding for rail transportation and assists in the rehabilitation of Northeast Corridor passenger service. Additionally, the agency oversees the operation and ownership of all intermodal infrastructures such as tracks, right-of-way, equipment and real property as well as rolling stock. It also handles the overall coordination of federal rail transportation programs.

The FRA's responsibilities also include the establishment, through regulation and after an opportunity to comment, a procedure by which anyone can notify the Secretary Homeland Security any railroad security issues or issues. The agency also formulates guidelines, conducts inspections and assesses compliance with its rail laws in six technical disciplines, including track signals, track and train control; motive power and equipment; operating practices as well as hazmat and highway-rail grade intersections.

The agency is responsible of ensuring that the railroad transportation system is operating in a secure, efficient, and environmentally friendly way. The agency also requires railroads to provide a safe working environment and provide adequate training for their employees. Additionally, the agency establishes and regulates railroad rates to ensure that the public receives an equitable price for their transportation services.

Additionally the Federal Railroad Administration enacts and enforces rules to stop discrimination against railroad employees as well as protects whistleblowers from retaliation from railroad companies. The agency also has an avenue for AccidentInjuryLawyers railroad employees to submit complaints about the conduct of the company.

The primary goal of the FRA is to enable the safe, reliable, and efficient transportation of goods and people for a strong America both now and in the future. The FRA achieves this by controlling rail safety, coordinating programs to assist railroads and conducting research in support of improved railroad safety and national transportation policy, coordinating rail networking development and helping the private industry manage railroads. In the past, railroads were essentially monopolies with little competition. This meant that the industry frequently abused its position in the market. Congress created the Interstate Commerce Commission, as well as other regulatory agencies to control railroad monopolies' abuses.

Purpose

The federal railroad is a government agency that makes rules, oversees funds for AccidentInjuryLawyers rail and researches ways to improve the nation's rail transportation system. It oversees both passenger and freight railroads, and also manages the nation's railway infrastructure. It is one of ten agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Transportation. It is also responsible for maintaining and expanding current rail infrastructure.

The primary responsibility of the government in the field of rail transportation is safety. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is responsible for this, and has several divisions that manage the country's passenger and freight railroad operations. The Office of Railroad Safety is the largest of them, with around 350 inspectors. It is responsible for conducting safety inspections across six technical disciplines, which include track, signalling, and train control equipment and motives operating procedures, hazmat and highway-rail grade crossings.

FRA has other departments that include the Office of Railroad Policy and Development. This oversees the programs designed to improve freight and passenger railway transportation, including the Northeast Corridor Future. This department is responsible for the grants for railways and collaborates with other agencies to plan the nation's rail requirements.

Another important function of the FRA is the enforcement of federal laws that pertain to railroads and their employees. This includes preventing railroads from discriminating against workers and ensuring that injured railway workers receive transportation to the nearest hospital for first aid treatment. Additionally, railroads are prohibited from denying or delaying medical treatment to injured railway workers.

The FRA is the primary regulator of the freight and passenger rail industries, but there are other organizations which manage the economic aspects of rail transport. Surface Transportation Board is responsible for establishing rates and managing economics in the sector. It has regulatory authority over railroad mergers, line sales construction and abandonment. After the public consultation period the agency is responsible for establishing regulations that permit anyone to report any suspected rail safety violations.

Functions

Rails transport goods and people from and to cities in the developed world as also to villages in less developed countries. They transport raw materials to processing and manufacturing factories, and then the final products from those facilities to stores and warehouses. Railroads are a vital mode of transportation for a variety of essential commodities, including coal, oil and grains. In 2020, AccidentInjuryLawyers freight railroads carried more than a quarter of all freight volumes in the United America [PDF(PDF).

A federal railroad operates like any other business, with departments for marketing and sales, operations and an executive department. The department of marketing and sales works with potential and existing customers as well as clients to determine the services they need and what they will cost. The operations department then produces rail services that meet these needs at the cheapest cost to make money for railroads. The executive department oversees the entire operation and makes sure that each department is operating efficiently.

The government supports the railways through a variety of methods, including grants and subsidized rates for government traffic. Congress also provides money to support and build new stations and tracks. These subsidies are usually in addition to the revenue the railroads earn from ticket sales and freight contracts.

In the United States, the government is the owner of the passenger railway Amtrak. It is a quasi-public for profit company with a huge stockholder that is the United States government.

The Federal Railroad Administration's (FRA) principal task is to formulate and enforce safety regulations for railroads. This includes regulating the mechanical state of trains as well as the health and safety of railroad employees. FRA also collects data on rail security to identify trends, areas that need improvement or attention from regulators and to determine trends.

In addition to these fundamental duties, FRA works on various other projects that aim to improve the economy and security of railway transportation in the United States. For instance, FRA is working to remove obstacles that could hinder railroads' introduction of positive train control systems (PTC). PTC is a safety system that uses sensors and computers to stop a train automatically when it is too close to an object or vehicle.

History

The first railroads in the United States were constructed in the 1820s and 1830s largely in New England and the Mid-Atlantic states. The railroads accelerated industrialization and brought more food items to market in these areas. This allowed the country to become more self-sufficient and less dependent on foreign imports, which resulted in a solid economic base.

In the latter part of the nineteenth century, the railroad industry experienced an "Golden Age," during which many new trains that were more efficient were built and passenger travel via train became increasingly popular. The government's efforts to expand the railroad system were a major aspect. The government, for instance granted homesteaders land grants to encourage them to settle in the West. Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads also worked together to build the first transcontinental railroad which allowed passengers to travel from New York City to San Francisco in just six days.

However in the early part of the 20th century, the demand for passenger railroad services declined and other modes of transportation such as airplanes and cars gained popularity, while regulations hampered railroads in their ability to compete economically. A string of bankruptcies, service cuts, and deferred maintenance followed. Additionally, a misguided federal railway regulations contributed to the decline of the industry.

Around 1970, federal government began loosening the regulatory restrictions on railroads. The Surface Transportation Board was established to oversee the economic aspects of the industry such as mergers and rates for railroads. The Federal Railroad Administration, which supervises freight and passenger transportation and sets standards for rail safety, was also created.

Since then, the railway infrastructure of the United States has seen a lot of investment. The Northeast Corridor, for example has been renovated to accommodate more efficient, faster and modern high speed ground transportation (HSGT) trains. There have also been efforts to create more efficient systems for freight rail. FRA hopes to continue to work with all transportation agencies to ensure reliable and safe rails in the future. It is the responsibility of FRA to help make sure that the transportation system of the United States is as efficient as it can be.