So You've Bought Federal Railroad ... Now What?

The Federal Railroad Administration

The Federal Railroad Administration is among the 10 agencies of the DOT which are responsible for intermodal transportation. Its purpose is to ensure secure and reliable transportation of people and goods.

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

Definition

Federal railroads are the rail carriers in the United States controlled by the federal government. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) establishes and enforces safety regulations, administers railroad funding, and researches ways to improve the efficiency of rail transportation systems. The FRA is one of the 10 agencies of the U.S. Department of Transportation that are concerned with intermodal transportation. Its chief executive officers are the Administrator and Deputy Administrator.

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

The FRA's responsibilities are to establish through regulation, after notification and comment, a process by which anyone can submit a report to the Secretary of Homeland Security concerning railroad security problems or deficiencies. Additionally, the FRA establishes policies and conducts inspections to determine the compliance of its rail safety laws in six technical disciplines tracks signals and train control motive power and equipment, operating practices, hazmat, and highway-rail grade crossings.

The agency is tasked with the responsibility of making sure the railway transportation system is safe, efficient, and environmentally friendly. In turn, the agency requires railroads to maintain the safety of their workers and provide adequate training for their employees. In addition, the agency sets and enforces railroad rates to ensure that the public is receiving fair prices for their transportation services.

The Federal Railroad Administration also enacts and implements rules to prevent discrimination against railroad employees. They also shield whistleblowers against retaliation from railroad carriers. The agency also sets up an avenue for railroad employees to make complaints regarding the conduct of their company.

The main goal of the agency is to facilitate the safe efficient, reliable, and secure movement of people and goods to ensure a secure America today and into the future. The FRA accomplishes this by controlling rail safety, coordinating programs for assistance to railroads, conducting research in support of improving safety in the railroad industry and national transportation policies as well as coordinating the development of rail networks and assisting private companies manage railroads. In the past, railroads were huge monopolies with little competition. The railroad industry was able to abuse its dominant position in the market as a result. Congress created the Interstate Commerce Commission, as well as other regulatory agencies, to curb the monopolies' exploitation of railroads.

Purpose

Federal railroads are government institutions that make rules, regulate funds for rail and conduct research to improve rail transportation in the United America. It manages the railroad infrastructure of the United States and supervises freight and passenger railroads. It is one of the 10 agencies of the U.S. Department of Transportation. It is also tasked with maintaining and expanding the current railway systems, ensuring capacity of the rail industry to meet increasing travel and freight demands and providing leadership in regional and national system planning.

The main responsibility of the federal government in the railway industry is safety. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is responsible for this, and it has several divisions that manage the country's passenger and freight railway operations. The largest of these is the Office of Railroad Safety, which is home to about 350 safety inspectors. It is responsible for conducting inspections that determine compliance with regulations in six technical disciplines: track signals, train control, motive power and equipment, operating practices as well as hazmat and highway rail grade crossings.

FRA has several departments, such as the Office of Railroad Policy and Development. This oversees the programs that aim to improve passenger and freight railway transportation, including the Northeast Corridor Future. This department is responsible for the grants for railways and collaborates with other agencies in order to plan the nation's railway requirements.

The FRA also has a responsibility to enforce federal laws pertaining to railroads and their workers. This includes preventing railroads from discriminate against workers and ensuring that all injured railway staff are transported to the nearest hospital for treatment. The law also prohibits railroads from refusing or delaying medical treatment to injured railway workers.

The FRA is the primary regulator of the passenger and freight rail industries, however there are other agencies which manage the economic aspects of rail transport. Surface Transportation Board is responsible for determining rates and governing economics in the sector. It also has the authority to regulate railroad mergers, line sales construction, and abandonment. After an open consultation period, the agency is also responsible for establishing rules that allow anyone to report any suspected rail safety violations.

Functions

Railroads transport goods and people to and from cities in the developed nations as also remote villages in countries that are less developed. They transport raw materials to processing and manufacturing factories, and the finished products from those factories to warehouses and stores. Railroads are an essential mode of transportation for many essential products, including oil, coal and grains. In  railroad injury fela lawyer , freight railroads moved more than a quarter of the freight volumes in the United America [PDFThe PDF file contains more information about.

The federal railroad is run like any other business. It has departments for marketing, operations, sale and an executive department. The department of marketing and sales consults with customers and potential clients to determine the services they need and what they need to cost. The operations department then develops the rail services that meet those requirements at the cheapest cost to generate revenue for the railroad. The executive department supervises the entire operation and ensures that each department is operating efficiently.

The government supports the railways through a variety of means such as grants and subsidised rates on government traffic. Congress also provides funds to help build new track and stations. These subsidies are often a part of the money that railroads earn through tickets and freight contracts.

In the United States, the government is the owner of the railway for passengers, Amtrak. It is a quasi-public for-profit company with a huge shareholder that is the United States government.

A key role of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is developing and enforcing safety regulations for railroads. This includes regulating the mechanical state of trains, as well as the health and safety of railroad employees. FRA also collects and analyzes data on rail safety to identify trends and areas that require more or better regulatory attention.

FRA also participates in other projects that help improve the economy and safety of railroad transportation in the United States. The agency, for example seeks to lower the obstacles that hinder railroads in adopting positive train control (PTC). PTC is a safety system that uses sensors and on-board computers to stop the train automatically when it gets too close to another vehicle or other object.

History

The first railroads in the United States were built in the 1820s and 1830s mostly in New England and the Mid-Atlantic states. The railroads significantly accelerated the industrialization process in those areas, and also brought more food to the market. This helped the country to become more independent and less dependent on imports from abroad, which in turn contributed to a stronger economic base.

In the latter part of the nineteenth century, the railroad industry experienced a "Golden Age," during which many new railway lines that were more efficient were constructed and passenger travel via train became popular. The government's efforts to expand the railroad system were an important reason. For instance the government offered land grants to homesteaders 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 six days.

However, in the first half of the 20th century, the demand for passenger railroad services decreased and other modes of transportation such as airplanes and cars gained popularity, while regulations choked railroads' ability to compete economically. A series of bankruptcies, service cuts, and deferred maintenance were the result. Misguided federal rail regulations also contributed to the decline.

Around 1970, federal government began loosening the regulations governing railroads. Surface Transportation Board was created to oversee economic issues like railroad rates and mergers. The Federal Railroad Administration, which regulates freight and passenger transport and sets standards for rail safety 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 rebuilt to accommodate faster, more modern high-speed ground transportation (HSGT) trains. The effort has also been made to improve the efficiency of freight rail systems. In the future, FRA hopes to continue its partnership with all transportation agencies to ensure safe and reliable railroads. It is the job of FRA to ensure that the nation's transportation system operates as efficiently as possible.