[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 49, Volume 4]
[Revised as of October 1, 2002]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 49CFR240.129]

[Page 624-625]
 
                        TITLE 49--TRANSPORTATION
 
       CHAPTER II--FEDERAL RAILROAD ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF 
                             TRANSPORTATION
 
PART 240--QUALIFICATION AND CERTIFICATION OF LOCOMOTIVE ENGINEERS--Table of Contents
 
       Subpart B--Component Elements of the Certification Process
 
Sec. 240.129  Criteria for monitoring operational performance of certified engineers.

    (a) Each railroad's program shall include criteria and procedures 
for implementing this section.
    (b) A railroad shall have procedures for monitoring the operational 
performance of those it has determined as qualified as a locomotive 
engineer in either train or locomotive service.
    (c) The procedures shall:
    (1) Be designed to determine that the person possesses and routinely 
employs the skills to safely operate locomotives and/or trains, 
including the proper application of the railroad's rules and practices 
for the safe operation of locomotives and trains;
    (2) Be designed so that each engineer shall be annually monitored by 
a Designated Supervisor of Locomotive Engineers, who does not need to be 
qualified on the physical characteristics of the territory over which 
the operational performance monitoring will be conducted;
    (3) Be designed so that the locomotive engineer is either 
accompanied by the designated supervisor for a reasonable length of time 
or has his or her train handling activities electronically

[[Page 625]]

recorded by a train operations event recorder;
    (d) The procedures may be designed so that the locomotive engineer 
being monitored either (i) is at the controls of the type of train 
normally operated on that railroad or segment of railroad and which this 
person might be permitted or required by the railroad to operate in the 
normal course of events after certification or (ii) is at the controls 
of a Type I or Type II simulator programmed to replicate the responsive 
behavior of the type of train normally operated on that railroad or 
segment of railroad and which this person might be permitted or required 
by the railroad to operate in the normal course of events after 
certification.
    (e) The testing and examination procedures selected by the railroad 
for the conduct of a monitoring program shall be:
    (1) Designed so that each locomotive engineer shall be given at 
least one unannounced test each calendar year.
    (2) Designed to test engineer compliance with provisions of the 
railroad's operating rules that require response to signals that display 
less than a ``clear'' aspect, if the railroad operates with a signal 
system that must comply with part 236 of this chapter;
    (3) Designed to test engineer compliance with provisions of the 
railroad's operating rules, timetable or other mandatory directives that 
require affirmative response by the locomotive engineer to less 
favorable conditions than that which existed prior to initiation of the 
test;
    (4) Designed to test engineer compliance with provisions of the 
railroad's operating rules, timetable or other mandatory directives 
violation of which by engineers were cited by the railroad as the cause 
of train accidents or train incidents in accident reports filed in 
compliance with part 225 of this chapter in the preceding calendar year;
    (5) Designed so that the administration of these tests is 
effectively distributed throughout whatever portion of a 24-hour day 
that the railroad conducts its operations; and
    (6) Designed so that individual tests are administered without prior 
notice to the engineer being tested.

[56 FR 28254, June 19, 1991, as amended at 64 FR 60992, Nov. 8, 1999]