WASHINGTON, D.C. – November 8, 2024 – Earlier today, the freight rail industry, under the leadership of the Association of American Railroads (AAR), filed litigation in multiple courts across the nation challenging the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA)’s failure to act on numerous overdue waiver requests. All of the pending requests seek to implement safe and modern railroading technologies. Specifically, the litigation asks courts to find FRA’s inaction on these requests is arbitrary and capricious and in violation of FRA’s own regulations requiring action within 9 months.
“Rail safety is a shared responsibility, and the FRA’s unlawful delays are creating uncertainty and preventing critical advancements in safety and efficiency,” said AAR President and CEO Ian Jefferies. “By law, the FRA is required within specified timelines to act and either grant or deny these petitions, yet it has repeatedly failed to meet its legal obligation, forcing the industry to file suit. Enhancing the safety and efficiency of the rail network cannot wait, and the industry has now had to file lawsuits to try to break FRA’s systemic inaction.”
Freight rail has long been, and remains today, the safest way to move goods over land. Railroad’s safety record has improved thanks to changes in operating practices, use of safer equipment and deployment of new technologies. Unlocking the next layer of safety gains demands innovation and reconsideration of the old ways of running a railroad. Continually advancing new approaches is critical and under the present regulatory framework often requires a waiver from rules that were put in place decades ago and did not necessarily contemplate modern advances in technology.
Railroads are ready to implement advanced operating practices and technologies, such as improved braking and signaling systems, to make operations even safer and more efficient, but FRA’s inaction is hindering progress. Congress has appropriately empowered the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) to do so. Congress also has required FRA continually to modernize its regulations by periodically reviewing longstanding waivers to determine if revising the existing regulations based upon the results of those programs would be appropriate.
Though the waivers presented in the cases differ by railroad, the FRA is past due to act on all of them. Some of the technology waivers have been awaiting FRA action for over two years. Many are not even requests for new waivers, but instead seek the renewal of existing programs and processes that have been safely utilized for years. Importantly, these technologies are not intended to simply be stacked on top of the underlying outdated regulatory framework. Rather, there are tremendous opportunities to employ science and data to modernize, harmonize and improve current regulated approaches to railroad safety.
The public and the railroads deserve good governance from FRA, that delivers timely and thoughtful reviews of proposals on advancing rail safety and efficiency. Unfortunately, efforts to urge the FRA to timely fulfill its responsibility to date have been unsuccessful. The industry was compelled to file these lawsuits given FRA’s failure to comply with its own rules and decide overdue waiver requests. With each day of inaction, an opportunity to enhance the safety and efficiency of the rail network is missed.
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