Five Killer Quora Answers To Federal Railroad

The Federal Railroad Administration

The Federal Railroad Administration is one of the DOT's 10 departments that deal with intermodal transportation. Its purpose is to ensure safe and efficient transportation of people and goods.

FRA field inspectors inspect the railroad track as well as train control and signal systems, as well as operating practices. They also investigate complaints.

Definition

Federal railroads are rail carriers in the United States controlled by the federal government. Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), which is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation, creates and enforces railway regulations as well as manages funds from railroads and conducts research to improve the efficiency of rail transportation. The FRA is one of the 10 agencies of the U.S. Department of Transportation which is responsible for intermodal transportation. Its chief executive officers are the Administrator and Deputy Administrator.

The agency is responsible for all passenger and freight transport that utilizes the railway network of the United States. The agency also consolidates the funding provided by the federal government for rail transportation and assists in the rehabilitation of the Northeast Corridor passenger service. Moreover, the agency regulates the ownership and operation of all intermodal facilities, such as tracks, right-of-way equipment and real property as well as rolling stock, and provides the overall coordination of federal rail transportation programs.

FRA's responsibilities include establishing through regulation, following an opportunity for notice and comment an avenue through anyone can submit a report to the Secretary of Homeland Security concerning railroad security problems or shortcomings. The agency also formulates policies, conducts inspections and evaluates the compliance with its rail laws in six technical disciplines, which include track signals, track and train control as well as motive power and equipment; operating procedures hazardous materials and highway-rail grade intersections.

The agency is charged with the responsibility of ensuring that the railway transportation system is secure, economical, and environmentally friendly. As a result, the agency requires railroads to ensure a safe working environment and provide adequate training for their employees. Additionally, the agency establishes and regulates railroad rates to ensure that the public is receiving a fair rate for their transportation services.

The Federal Railroad Administration also enacts and enforces rules to stop discrimination against railroad employees. The agency also safeguards whistleblowers against retaliation from railroad carriers. The agency also sets up a procedure for railroad employees to submit complaints about the company's conduct.

The main goal of the FRA is to ensure safe, reliable and effective movement of goods and people for a strong America both now and in the future. The FRA accomplishes this through overseeing the safety of railroads, regulating railroad assistance programs conducting research to help improved railroad safety and national rail transportation policies and coordination, as well as supporting the development of a rail network, and helping the private sector manage railroads. In the past, railroads were large monopolies that had no competition. The railroad industry abused its dominance in the market as a result. Congress established the Interstate Commerce Commission, as and other regulatory agencies, to limit the monopolies' exploitation of railroads.

Purpose

The federal railroad is a government agency that sets rules, oversees funds for rail and studies ways to improve the nation's rail transport system. It operates the railway infrastructure of the United States and manages passenger and freight railroads. It is one of the 10 agencies of the U.S. Department of Transportation. It is also responsible for maintaining and expanding the existing railway systems.

The primary responsibility of the government in the railway industry is safety. The Federal Railroad Administration is responsible for this. It has a variety of divisions that oversee the country's passenger and freight railroad operations. The largest of them is the Office of Railroad Safety, which has approximately 350 safety inspectors and is responsible for conducting inspections that determine compliance with regulations in six technical disciplines that include track, signal and train control, motive power and equipment, operating procedures, hazmat and highway-rail grade crossings.

FRA has several departments, including the Office of Railroad Policy and Development. This department oversees programs that aim at enhancing passenger and freight railway transport, Fela Railroad Settlements including the Northeast Corridor Future. The department also is responsible for the grants that help railways, and it collaborates with other agencies to develop plans for the nation's rail needs.

Another essential duty of the FRA is the enforcement of federal laws pertaining to railroads and their employees. This includes preventing railroads to discriminate against workers and ensuring that railway workers injured are taken to the nearest hospital for treatment. Additionally, railroads are prohibited from refusing or delaying medical care to injured railway employees.

The FRA is the primary regulator of the freight and passenger rail industries, however there are other organizations that manage the economic aspects of rail transportation. The Surface Transportation Board, for example, is in charge of setting rates and governing the economics of the industry. It is also the regulator for railroad mergers, line sales, construction and abandonment. Other responsibilities include the establishment of regulations after a public input opportunity and participation, where anyone can complain about alleged safety violations to the agency.

Functions

Railroads carry people and goods between cities in developed countries as also remote villages in less developed countries. They transport raw materials to processing and manufacturing factories, and the finished products from those factories to warehouses and stores. Railroads are a vital mode of transportation for many vital commodities, such as oil, coal and grains. In 2020, freight railroads carried more than a quarter of the freight volume in the United States [PDF(PDF).

The federal railroad is managed as a business. It has departments for marketing and sale, operations and an executive department. The marketing and sales department works with potential and current customers to determine what kind of rail services they require and what those services should cost. The operations department then produces rail services that meet these needs at the cheapest cost to earn money for railroad. The executive department oversees the entire operation, ensuring that every department is running smoothly.

The government offers support to railways in various ways, from grants to subsidized rates for shipping government traffic. Congress also provides money to support and build stations and tracks. These subsidies are often a part of the money that railroads earn through tickets and freight contracts.

In the United States, the government owns 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) primary purpose is to create and enforce safety regulations for railroads. This includes regulating the mechanical properties of trains and the health and safety of railroad employees. FRA also collects data on security of rail lines to identify patterns, areas that need improvement or regulatory attention and to identify trends.

FRA also participates in other projects to improve the economy and safety of rail transportation in the United States. For instance, FRA seeks to eliminate obstacles that might hinder railroads' implementation of positive train control systems (PTC). PTC is a safety system that makes use of sensors and computers on board to stop the train automatically when it gets too close to a vehicle or other object.

History

The nation's first railroads were constructed in the 1820s and 1830s mostly in New England and the Mid-Atlantic states. The railroads accelerated industrialization and brought more food items to the market in these regions. This made the country more self-sufficient and less dependent on imports.

In the latter part of the nineteenth century the railroad industry went through an "Golden Age," during which many new trains that were more efficient were built, and passenger travel by train became more popular. The government's efforts to expand the railroad system were a major reason. For instance the government provided homesteaders grants of land to encourage them to move to the West, and the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads joined forces to construct the first transcontinental railroad which enabled travel from New York to San Francisco in just six days.

However in the early part of the 20th century, demand for railroad passenger services slowed and other modes of transportation such as cars and airplanes gained popularity, while stifling regulations hampered railroads competitiveness economically. A series of bankruptcies and service cuts, and deferred maintenance followed. The misguided federal rail regulations contributed to the decline.

Around the year 1970 the federal government started to loosen the regulatory burdens on 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 established.

Since then, the railroad 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 improve the efficiency of freight rail systems. FRA hopes to continue to work with all transportation agencies to ensure safe and reliable rails in the near future. It is the job of FRA to ensure that the transportation system of the United States operates as efficiently as it can.