Certification of Signal Employees

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION <SUBAGY>Federal Railroad Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>49 CFR Part 246</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. FRA-2022-0020, Notice No. 4]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 2130-AC92</RIN> <SUBJECT>Certification of Signal Employees</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), Department of Transportation (DOT). <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> FRA is prescribing regulations for certification of signal employees, pursuant to the authority granted in section 402 of the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (RSIA). </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> <E T="03">Effective Date:</E> The rule is effective July 22, 2024. </EFFDATE> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Gabe Neal, Staff Director, Signal, Train Control, and Crossings Division, U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Railroad Administration, telephone: (816) 516-7168, email: <E T="03">Gabe.Neal@dot.gov;</E> or Kathryn Gresham, Attorney Adviser, U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Railroad Administration, telephone: (202) 577-7142, email: <E T="03">kathryn.gresham@dot.gov.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Abbreviations and Terms Used in This Document</HD> <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">AANP—American Association of Nurse Practitioners</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">AAR—Association of American Railroads</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">ADA—Americans with Disabilities Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">APTA—American Public Transportation Association</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">ASLRRA—American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">BRS—Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">CE—Categorical Exclusion</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">CFR—Code of Federal Regulations</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">CRB—Certification Review Board</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">DAC—Drug and alcohol counselor</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">DOT—United States Department of Transportation</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">EA—Environmental Assessment</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">EIS—Environmental Impact Statement</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">FRA—Federal Railroad Administration</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">IBEW—International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">IRFA—Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">ITLC—International Transportation Learning Center</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">MTA—New York State Metropolitan Transportation Authority</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">NEPA—National Environmental Policy Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">NPRM—Notice of Proposed Rulemaking</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">NRC—Network Rail Consulting Inc.</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">NRCMA—National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">NRM—Northwest Railway Museum</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">OCSR—Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">OMB—United States Office of Management and Budget</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">PRA—The Paperwork Reduction Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">PTC—Positive Train Control</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">PV—Present Value</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">RIA—Regulatory Impact Analysis</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">RIN—Regulatory Identification Number</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">RSAC—Railroad Safety Advisory Committee</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">RSIA—Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">SAP—Substance Abuse Professional</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">SMART-TD—Transportation Division of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">STB—The Surface Transportation Board</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">TTD—Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">U.S.C.—United States Code</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">UTC—Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Table of Contents for Supplementary Information</HD> <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">I. Executive Summary</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">II. Legal Authority</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">III. Background</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Roles and Responsibilities of Signal Employees</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. FRA History of Certification</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. Statutory Background for Signal Employee Certification</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">D. Report to Congress</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">E. RSAC Working Group</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">F. Public Outreach</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">G. Role of Third Parties</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">H. Interaction With Other FRA Regulations</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">I. Confidential Close Call Reporting System</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">J. Notice of Proposed Rulemaking</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">IV. Discussion of General Comments and FRA's Conclusions</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Cost-Benefit Analysis/Safety Justification</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. RSIA Authority</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. Role of Third Parties</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">D. Interaction With Other FRA Regulations</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">E. Confidential Close Call Reporting System</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">F. PTC</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">V. Section-by-Section Analysis</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">VI. Regulatory Impact and Notices</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Executive Order 12866</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Regulatory Flexibility Act and Executive Order 13272</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. Paperwork Reduction Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">D. Federalism Implications</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">E. International Trade Impact Assessment</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">F. Environmental Impact</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">G. Environmental Justice</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">H. Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">I. Energy Impact</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">J. Executive Order 13175 (Tribal Consultation)</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Executive Summary</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">Purpose of the Regulatory Action</HD> FRA is requiring railroads to develop FRA-approved programs for certifying signal employees who work on signal systems and signal-related technology on their networks. Pursuant to this rule, railroads are required to have formal processes for training signal employees, as well as verifying that each signal employee has the requisite knowledge, skills, safety record, and ability to safely perform assigned tasks mandated by railroad rules and safety standards and Federal law and regulations prior to certification. In addition, railroads will be required to have formal processes for revoking certification (either temporarily or permanently) for signal employees who violate specified minimum requirements. FRA is promulgating this regulation in response to section 402 of the RSIA, Public Law 110-432, 122 Stat. 4848, 4884 (Oct. 16, 2008), which required the Secretary of Transportation (Secretary) to submit a report to Congress addressing whether certification of “certain crafts or classes” of railroad employees or contractors, including signal employees, was necessary to “reduce the number and rate of accidents and incidents or to improve railroad safety.” Section 402 further provides that the Secretary may prescribe regulations requiring the certification of certain crafts or classes if the Secretary determined, pursuant to the report to Congress, that such regulations are necessary to reduce the number and rate of accidents and incidents or to improve railroad safety. The Secretary submitted a report to Congress on November 4, 2015, <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> stating that, based on FRA's preliminary research, signal employees were one of the most viable candidate railroad crafts for certification, particularly with the introduction of Positive Train Control (PTC) technology. Given the safety critical role of signal employees in facilitating safe railroad operations, FRA determined that the number and rate of accidents and incidents would be expected to decrease and railroad safety would be expected to improve if signal employees are required to satisfy certain standards and be certified by each railroad whose signal systems they install, troubleshoot, repair, test, or maintain. <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>  A copy of this November 4, 2015 Report to Congress has been posted in the rulemaking docket at: <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov/document/FRA-2022-0020-0001.</E> </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD2">Summary of Major Provisions</HD> This rule requires railroads to develop written programs for certifying individuals who work as signal employees on their territories, and to submit those written certification programs to FRA for approval prior to implementation. FRA will issue a letter to the railroad when it approves a certification program that explains the basis for approval, and a program will not be considered approved until FRA issues the approval letter. Subpart A of this rule contains general provisions, including a formal statement of the rule's purpose and scope. Subpart B of this rule covers the review and approval process of certification programs, the implementation schedule for this rule, the certification program requirements, and the eligibility determinations a railroad must make to certify a person as a signal employee. Class I railroads (including the National Railroad Passenger Corporation), and railroads providing commuter service, are required to submit their written certification programs to FRA no later than eight (8) months after this rule's effective date. Class II and Class III railroads are required to submit their written certification plans sixteen (16) months after this rule's rule effective date. New railroads that begin operation after the effective date are required to submit their written certification programs to FRA and obtain FRA approval before installing their signal systems and commencing operations. In addition, railroads seeking to materially modify their FRA-approved certification programs must obtain FRA approval prior to modifying their programs. Railroads are required to eval ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 491k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━