FRA R&D projects contribute vital inputs to the FRA's safety regulatory processes, to railroad suppliers, to railroads involved in the transportation of freight, intercity passengers, commuters, and to railroad employees and their labor organizations. FRA-owned facilities provide the infrastructure necessary to conduct experiments and test theories, concepts, and new technologies in support of the R&D program.
Railroad safety depends on the reliability of people, as well as infrastructure, equipment, and control systems. Railroading is known to operate in a hostile, unforgiving environment. Railroad operating workers need knowledge, training, tools, and alertness to do their jobs properly and ensure the public's, as well as their own and their coworkers' safety. Railroad infrastructure has many elements, including soil in embankments, ballast, ties, rail, rail fastening devices, turnouts, bridges, and tunnels, that must be properly designed, installed, used, maintained, and inspected if railroads are to be operated safely.
Similarly, railroad equipment has many components, including wheels, bearings, axles, trucks, springs, brakes (both air and the new electronically-controlled), under-frames, draft gear couplers, safety appliances, and seats that must also be properly designed, installed, used, maintained, and inspected if railroads are to be operated safely. Train control systems, which have historically been very reliable but still enable a human being to make a mistake and cause an accident, need to be upgraded to prevent the possibility of human error from causing accidents.
Railroad transportation of passengers and hazardous materials present situations that require special attention to ensure that a high level of safety is maintained. Perhaps the greatest safety risk of all for railroads occurs at those locations where railroads intersect with streets and highways. All these topics receive specific attention in the Five-Year RD&D Plan, which addresses these issues through an appropriate combination of study, analysis, simulation, laboratory testing, and field-testing.
