The Federal Railroad Administration
The Federal Railroad Administration is one of the DOT's 10 agencies that deal with intermodal transportation. Its mission is enabling the safe and efficient transportation of people and goods.
FRA field inspectors regularly check railroad track, signal and train control systems, as well as operating practices. They also investigate complaints.
Definition
Federal railroads are the rail carriers in the United States controlled by the federal government. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) creates and enforces railway safety rules, oversees railway funding, and studies ways to improve rail transportation systems. The FRA is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation's intermodal transportation division and its chief executives are the Administrator as well as the Deputy Administrator.
The agency is responsible for all passenger and freight transportation that utilizes the nation's railway network. The agency also consolidates the federal funding for rail transportation, and helps with the rehabilitation of Northeast Corridor passenger service. Additionally, the agency oversees the operation and ownership of all intermodal facilities, such as tracks, rights-of-way, equipment, real property and rolling stock. It also handles the overall coordination of federal rail transportation programs.
The FRA's duties include establishing, through regulation, following the opportunity for notice and comment, a process by which anyone can submit a submit a report to the Secretary of Homeland Security concerning railroad security problems or deficiencies. In addition, the agency creates policies and conducts inspections to determine the compliance with its rail safety laws in six technical disciplines that include track signal and train control, motive power and equipment operating practices, hazmat, and highway-rail grade crossings.
The agency has the responsibility of ensuring that the railroad transportation system is operating in a secure, efficient, and environmentally friendly way. The agency also requires that railroads maintain a safe work environment and provide adequate training for their employees. Furthermore, the agency sets and regulates railroad rates to ensure that the public is receiving fair prices for their transportation services.
Additionally, the Federal Railroad Administration enacts and enforces regulations to prevent discrimination against railroad workers, and protect whistleblowers from retaliation from railroad carriers. The agency also has a procedure by which railroad employees can make complaints against the company's actions.
The agency's main mission is to ensure safe, reliable and effective transportation of people and goods for a strong America today and in the future. The FRA accomplishes this by controlling safety of railroads, coordinating programs for assistance to railroads conducting research to help the improvement of safety for railroads and national rail transportation policies and coordination, as well as supporting rail networking development and assisting the private sector manage railroads. In the past, railroads were large monopolies with little competition. This meant that railroads often misused their position in the marketplace. This is why Congress established the Interstate Commerce Commission and other regulatory agencies to curb the abuses of railroad monopolies.
Purpose
Federal railroads are federal agencies that set regulations, manage rail funds and conduct research to improve rail transport in the United America. It manages the rail infrastructure of the United States and oversees passenger and freight railroads. It is one of the 10 agencies within the U.S. Department of Transportation. It is also tasked with maintaining and expanding existing railway systems, ensuring capacity of the rail industry to meet increasing demand for freight and travel as well as providing leadership in national and regional system planning.
Security is the primary responsibility in the field of rail transportation. fela lawyer is responsible for this. It has a number of divisions that supervise the country's freight and passenger railroad operations. The largest of these is the Office of Railroad Safety, with about 350 safety inspectors. It is responsible for conducting inspections to determine compliance with the regulations in six technical disciplines that include track, signal and train control, motive power and equipment, operating practices hazardous materials and highway-rail grade crossings.
FRA has several departments that include the Office of Railroad Policy and Development. This department oversees programs aimed at improving freight and passenger rail transportation, like the Northeast Corridor Future. This department is responsible for granting grants given to railways and works with other agencies to plan the nation's railway requirements.
The FRA also has a responsibility to enforce federal laws that pertain to railroads and workers. This includes preventing railroads from discriminating against employees, and making sure that all injured railway employees receive transportation to the nearest hospital for first aid treatment. The law also prohibits railroads from denying or delaying medical treatment for injured railway employees.
The FRA is the main regulator of the rail passenger and freight industry, but other agencies oversee the economic aspects of rail transportation. The Surface Transportation Board, for instance is responsible for setting rates and managing the financial aspects of the industry. It is the regulatory authority for railroad mergers, line-sales construction, and abandonment. After the public consultation period, the agency is also accountable for establishing regulations that permit anyone to report any suspected rail safety violations.
Functions
Railroads transport people and goods to and from cities in the developed nations as and remote villages in less developed countries. They transport raw materials to manufacturing and processing factories, and the finished products from those facilities to warehouses and stores. Railroads are a critical form of transportation for many essential commodities, including coal, oil and grains. In 2020, freight rail carried over a quarter of the nation's total freight volumes [PDF].
The federal railroad is managed as a business. It has departments for marketing and operations, sales, and an executive department. The marketing and sales department works with potential and current customers to determine the type of rail services they require and how much they will cost. The operations department then creates the rail services that meet those requirements at the lowest possible cost in order to earn money for the railroad. The executive department supervises the entire operation, making sure every department is running smoothly.
The government offers support to railways in a variety of ways from grants to subsidised rates for shipping government traffic. Congress also provides funds to help build and maintain stations and tracks. These subsidies are often added to the revenue that railroads receive through ticket sales and freight contracts.
Amtrak is owned by the United States government. It is a quasi-public, for-profit corporation with a significant stockholder that is the United States government.
The Federal Railroad Administration's (FRA) main task is to formulate and enforce safety regulations for railroads. This includes regulating the mechanical properties of trains, as well as the health and safety of railroad employees. FRA also collects data on rail security to determine trends areas that require improvement or attention from the regulatory side and to identify trends.
FRA also participates in other projects to improve the safety and economy of railroad transportation in the United States. For instance, the agency aims to reduce barriers that could delay railroads' introduction of positive train control systems (PTC). PTC is a safety system that uses sensors and on-board computers to stop the train when it is too close to a vehicle or other object.
History
In the 1820s-1830s, the first railroads in the United States were built, mostly in New England and Mid-Atlantic. The railroads greatly accelerated industrialization in these areas and also brought more food to the market. This development allowed the country to become more independent and less dependent on imports from abroad, which contributed to a stronger economic base.
In the late 19th century the railroad industry enjoyed an "Golden Age" in which new, more efficient rail lines were built and passenger transportation became popular. This was in large part due to the government's efforts to expand the railroad system. For example the government provided land grants to homesteaders to encourage them to move to the West and the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads collaborated to build the first transcontinental railroad, which enabled travel from New York to San Francisco in just six days.
However in the first half of the 20th century, demand for passenger railroad services declined and other modes of transport like automobiles and planes gained in popularity, while stifling regulations hampered railroads competitiveness economically. A series of bankruptcies, delays in maintenance and service cuts were the result. The misguided federal rail regulations contributed to the decline.
Around 1970, federal government began loosening the regulations governing railroads. The Surface Transportation Board was established to oversee the economic aspects of the industry, such as mergers and railroad rates. The Federal Railroad Administration, which regulates freight and passenger transport and sets rail safety standards, was also created.
Since then, a significant amount of investment has been made in the nation's railroad infrastructure. The Northeast Corridor, for example has been renovated to accommodate more efficient, faster and modern high-speed ground transportation (HSGT) trains. The effort has also been made to improve the efficiency of freight rail systems. In the future, FRA hopes to continue its relationship with all transportation agencies in order to ensure reliable and safe railroads. It is the responsibility of FRA to help make sure that the nation's transportation system is as efficient as it can be.