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.
Each railroad carrier participating in C3RS also participates in the national Steering Committee and the PRT on site. The carrier works with the other stakeholders to implement C3RS, reviews PRT reports, and takes corrective action.
Federal Railroad Administration (FRA)
FRA's Office of Research and Development sponsors and funds C3RS, while its Office of Safety consults on goals and implementation, and also funds C3RS.
Labor organizations
Labor organizations participate in the national Steering Committee and the PRT at each demonstration site.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
NASA is a federal agency that serves as an independent third party that collects, analyzes, and maintains the confidential data collected for C3RS. NASA also identifies safety trends and emerging risks and writes and distributes publications to share this information with demonstration-site participants and the railroad industry. NASA conducts similar third party tasks with the airline industry and Veterans Administration Hospitals.
Peer Review Team (PRT)
The PRT consists of local representatives from railroads, union officers and members, carrier management, and FRA at the demonstration site. It promotes C3RS at the site, identifies why close calls occur, recommends corrective action, and evaluates the effectiveness of any such action that was implemented.
Steering Committee
The national Steering Committee is made up of representatives from stakeholder organizations and oversees the C3RS demonstration project.
Volpe Center
The Volpe Center is a federal agency within the USDOT (US Department of Transportation) that supports C3RS in three ways:
It works with demonstration sites to implement C3RS.
It collects lessons learned about the implementation effort to improve the system and evaluate its impact on safety.
It acts as the executive agent for FRA to provide support to the Steering Committee, working with all stakeholders to facilitate planning, implementation, and monitoring of C3RS operations.