FRA says new rule will ensure freight trains are ‘safely staffed’

Washington — Large freight trains must have at least two crew members on board, under a recently announced Federal Railroad Administration final rule.

The rule also sets requirements for the location of crew members on a moving train to ensure they can always communicate with one another, and it prohibits trains without two crew members from transporting certain quantities and types of hazardous materials.

“Common sense tells us that large freight trains, some of which can be over 3 miles long, should have at least two crew members on board – and now there’s a federal regulation in place to ensure trains are safely staffed,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in an April 2 press release. “This rule requiring safe train crew sizes is long overdue, and we are proud to deliver this change that will make workers, passengers and communities safer.”

FRA published a notice of proposed rulemaking in July 2022. The agency says it considered more than 13,500 written comments and weighed public remarks made during a hearing in December 2022.

“The volume of comments from rail workers and their families, as well as comments from the general public impacted by long trains and other issues, raised legitimate safety concerns that railroads, on their own, have not been able to adequately address,” FRA Administrator Amit Bose said in the release.

Association of American Railroads President and CEO Ian Jefferies disagrees. He said in a release that the overall train incident rate has decreased 27% since 2000 and 6% since 2022. Meanwhile, the fatality rate for workers in Class I railroads has fallen 63% since 2000 and stood at an all-time low last year.

Eddie Hall, national president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen – a union that represents more than 51,000 railroad workers, applauds the rule.

“As trains, many carrying hazardous material, have grown longer, crews should not be getting smaller,” Hall said in a release. “I personally have operated freight trains that stretch over 3 miles in length. Today’s announcement is an important step in making railroading safer in every state, rather than a piecemeal approach.”

FRA says multiple states, including Ohio, Virginia and Colorado, have considered legislation to mandate two-person rail crews.

The rule is set to go into effect 60 days after publication in the Federal Register.