December 24: FMCSA cuts random truckers’ testing rate for substance abuse to 25%. Good news for truck drivers and carriers—the United States Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has cut the random testing rate for substance abuse in half, from 50% to 25%. This should produce a nice savings for carriers,…
2018 Rail PTC Extension rolls through Congress
Congress acted to avert confusion and delay on the nation’s rail infrastructure on Wednesday October 28th, 2015 by passing an extension to what had been a looming December 31st, 2015 deadline for railroads to fully implement Positive Train Control, or PTC, control systems on their networks. PTC is a control system that uses Global Positioning…
Congressional politics threaten PTC extension bill
Just when American railroads were perhaps starting to breathe a bit easier about the December 31st, 2015 Positive Train Control (PTC) deadline account the seeming agreement in the House of Representatives about extending the deadline to 2018 under a pending bill HR 3651, new political roadblocks to passage appear to be arising. On Wednesday October…
Congress advances bill to delay Railroad PTC Mandate
The US House of Representatives has introduced legislation to delay until 2018 the current deadline for US railroads to implement Positive Train Control (PTC) systems on their tracks. As discussed in a previous blog on the subject, the nation’s railroads have jointly stated the physical impossibility of completing such an inter-operative system by the end…
PTC Alert! The Positive Train Control Deadline Creates a Potential Transportation Crisis
UPDATE: Congress advances bill to delay Railroad PTC Mandate Will January 1, 2016 be the day the trains stop? As America’s railroads and Congress fail to agree on extending the December 31 deadline for implementing Positive Train Control systems, that threat inches closer to reality. The railroads have threatened to essentially shut down all service…
New FRA grant program to help state & local governments improve rail safety
In the Friday, September 04, 2015 edition of the Federal Register, the US Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) announced a new grant program. Under the Railroad Safety Grants for the Safe Transportation of Energy Products by Rail Program (Step Rail), ten million dollars is being made available to local and state governments…
Costs and concerns about the FRA’s new “rollaway” rules
After the disastrous Lac-Mégantic derailment on July 6, 2013, the U.S. Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) issued Emergency Order 28 directing U.S. railroads to take certain actions to reduce the likelihood of another unattended train “rolling away” with explosive, flammable materials on board. On July 29 of this year, the FRA announced the codification of many…
US FRA Takes Emergency Action Limiting Some Train Speeds
At approximately 1:15 AM EST on July 6th, 2013, a unit freight train of the cross-border operating Montreal, Maine, & Atlantic Railroad (MM&A) loaded with crude oil from the Bakken Shale Formations in North Dakota in the western United States…
USDOT/FRA Issues Final Rule Mandating Improved Employee Training for Railroads, Contractors, Related Groups
On Friday, November 7th, 2014, the United States Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) issued a final rule mandating significant improvements to the way training and the documentation of training for both railroad employees and the employees of railroad industry contractors (i.e. track and infrastructure construction maintenance and other activities related to actual…
US Federal Railroad Administration Issues Proposed Rulemaking to Codify Emergency Order 28 of August 2013
At approximately 1:15 AM EST on July 6th, 2013, a unit freight train of the cross-border operating Montreal, Maine, & Atlantic Railroad (MM&A) loaded with crude oil from the Bakken Shale Formations in North Dakota in the western United States suffered a failure of its automatic and manual braking systems while left unattended and presumably…