The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) was created by the Department ofTransportation Act of 1966. It is one of ten agencies within the U.S. Department ofTransportation concerned with intermodal transportation. FRA promotes safe,environmentally sound, successful railroad transportation to meet the needs of all customers today and tomorrow.
FRA's Office of Railroad Safety promotes and regulates safety throughout the Nation's railroad industry. The office executes its regulatory and inspection responsibilities through a diverse staff of railroad safety experts.
The Federal Railroad Administration is responsible for working with stakeholders to develop cohesive goals and policies for maintaining and improving the U.S. freight and passenger rail networks. This section covers various efforts across America and the world in helping to deliver safe, reliable, and efficient rail transportation.
FRA Research & Development (R&D) projects contribute 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.
In this section, we provide descriptions and comprehensive, official sources for FRA's regulations (also called rules), selected legislation, as well as policy and guidance documents. Additionally, you will find current topics of high interest or significant impact to Congress, railroads, employees, labor, public interest groups and other stakeholders.
FRA supports passenger and freight railroading through a variety of competitive grant, dedicated grant, and loan programs to develop safety improvements, relieve congestion, and encourage the expansion and upgrade of passenger and freight rail infrastructure and services. FRA also provides training and technical assistance to grantees and stakeholders.
The Federal Railroad Administration Office of Communications is the primary link between the agency and reporters, the public and others who have an interest in our nation's rail network.
The FRA eLibrary contains all the documents that are found throughout the FRA Public Website. Multiple pages on the website may link to the same eLibrary item based on its set of metadata.
The FRA selected the Pennsylvania High-Speed Maglev project for further development in the Maglev Deployment Program Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). Port Authority of Allegheny County is preparing the Pennsylvania Maglev EIS with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PENNDOT) and the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). The Notice of Intent was published in the Federal Register on July 19, 2001. The Port Authority is sponsoring the project as a public-private partnership with Maglev, Inc., who have promoted the high-speed maglev effort for more than a decade.
The proposed Pennsylvania High-Speed Maglev project is an approximately 54-mile maglev line connecting Pittsburgh International Airport, Downtown Pittsburgh and Monroeville and Greensburg, Pennsylvania, with multi-modal stations at these locations. The entire trip, from the Airport to Greensburg, would take approximately 35 minutes including stops. The project was estimated to cost $3.8 billion in 2003.
The Draft EIS for the Pennsylvania Maglev project was issued in September 2005 and the public comment closed December 7, 2005.
On May 7, 2010, FRA signed the Final Environmental Impact Statement.
See the Port Authority's website to view the Draft EIS and for more information: http://www.portauthority.org/PAAC/Portals/Capital/maglev/magFrame.asp