Track Geometry Measurement System (TGMS) Inspections

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION <SUBAGY>Federal Railroad Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>49 CFR Part 213</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. FRA-2024-0032]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 2130-AC96</RIN> <SUBJECT>Track Geometry Measurement System (TGMS) Inspections</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), Department of Transportation (DOT). <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM). <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> FRA is proposing to revise its regulations governing the minimum safety requirements for railroad track. The proposed changes would require all Class I and II railroads, as well as intercity passenger railroads and commuter railroads, to operate a qualifying Track Geometry Measurement System (TGMS), a type of automated track inspection (ATI) technology, at specified frequencies on all Class 1 through 5 mainline and controlled siding track that transports: annual tonnage greater than 10 million gross tons (MGT); regularly scheduled passenger rail service; or trains containing hazardous materials. FRA also proposes increasing the required frequency of TGMS inspections on Class 6 track. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Written comments must be received by December 23, 2024. Comments received after that date will be considered to the extent possible without incurring additional expense or delay. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> <E T="03">Comments:</E> Comments related to Docket No. FRA-2024-0032 may be submitted by going to <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov</E> and following the online instructions for submitting comments. <E T="03">Instructions:</E> All submissions must include the agency name, docket number (FRA-2024-0032), and Regulatory Identification Number (RIN) for this rulemaking (2130-AC96). All comments received will be posted without change to <E T="03">http://www.regulations.gov</E> ; this includes any personal information. Please see the Privacy Act heading in the <E T="02">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION</E> section of this document for Privacy Act information related to any submitted comments or materials. <E T="03">Docket:</E> For access to the docket to read background documents or comments received, go to <E T="03">http://www.regulations.gov</E> and follow the online instructions for accessing the docket. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Yu-Jiang Zhang, Staff Director, Track and Structures Division, Office of Railroad Safety, Federal Railroad Administration, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, W33-302, Washington, DC 20590, telephone: 202-493-6460; or Aaron Moore, Senior Attorney, Office of the Chief Counsel, Federal Railroad Administration, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, W31-216, Washington, DC 20590, telephone: 202-853-4784. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <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="FP-2">IV. Section-by-Section Analysis</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">V. Regulatory Impact and Notices</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Executive Order 12866 as Amended by Executive Order 14094</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. Executive Order 12898 (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. Privacy Act Statement</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">K. Executive Order 13175 (Tribal Consultation)</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">L. Rulemaking Summary, 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(4)</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Executive Summary</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">Purpose of the Regulatory Action</HD> ATI technologies have been evolving since the 1970s and FRA has been researching ATI technology, including TGMS, for many years. This effort has included multiple FRA-authored or sponsored technical reports, <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> as well as FRA-approved Test Programs (49 CFR 211.51) with nearly every Class I railroad, <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> to evaluate the effectiveness of this technology. Based on its years of research into TGMS, as well as its own Automated Track Inspection Program (ATIP) and the Class I Test Programs, FRA acknowledges the safety benefits of this technology, specifically its ability to quickly and accurately detect small changes in track geometry. FRA notes that TGMS is not a substitute for visual track inspections, which inspect for numerous conditions aside from track geometry and remain essential to ensuring railroad safety. <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>   <E T="03">See e.g.,</E> Autonomous Track Geometry Measurement Technology Design, Development, and Testing (2018), <E T="03">available at https://downloads.regulations.gov/FRA-2020-0013-0003/attachment_5.pdf;</E> Evaluation of the Federal Railroad Administration's Autonomous Track Geometry Measurement System Research and Development Program (2016), <E T="03">available at https://railroads.dot.gov/sites/fra.dot.gov/files/fra_net/17086/ATGMS%20final%20report_final.pdf;</E> FRA Autonomous Track Geometry Measurement System Technology Development—Past, Present, and Future (2014), <E T="03">available at https://downloads.regulations.gov/FRA-2020-0013-0003/attachment_1.pdf;</E> Development and Use of FRA Autonomous Track Geometry Measurement System Technology (2014), <E T="03">available at https://downloads.regulations.gov/FRA-2020-0013-0003/attachment_3.pdf;</E> Development of Autonomous Track Geometry Measurement Systems for Overall Track Assessment (2011), <E T="03">available at https://downloads.regulations.gov/FRA-2020-0013-0003/attachment_4.pdf;</E> Autonomous Track Inspection Systems—Today and Tomorrow (2009), <E T="03"> available at https:// downloads.regulations.gov/FRA-2020-0013-0003/attachment_2.pdf. </E> </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Docket Numbers FRA-2018-0091 (BNSF); FRA-2019-0099 (NS); FRA-2020-0013 (CSX); FRA-2020-0014 (CN); FRA-2020-0031 (UP); FRA-2020-0056 (CP) (available on <E T="03">www.regulations.gov</E> ). </FTNT> Today, every Class I and II railroad uses some form of TGMS to measure track geometry. FRA regulation already requires TGMS inspections for high-speed track (Class 6 and above) as well as lower-speed track with cant deficiency of higher than 5 inches. <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> While these existing requirements are applicable to a relatively small subset of railroads in the United States, FRA's research indicates that all railroads covered by this proposed rulemaking are already performing TGMS inspections on their networks at or above the frequencies FRA is proposing in this rule. Therefore, the purpose of this rulemaking is to codify this industry practice while also setting baseline requirements for areas such as TGMS calibration, recordkeeping, defect remediation timeframes, and training. <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> 49 CFR 213.57(i), 213.333. These TGMS inspections are in addition to the visual inspections required by other sections of part 213. </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD2">Summary of Major Provisions</HD> FRA is proposing regulations to amend 49 CFR part 213, Track Safety Standards (TSS), which prescribe the minimum safety requirements for railroad track. The proposed changes would require all Class I and II railroads, as well as intercity passenger railroads and commuter railroads, to operate a qualifying TGMS, at specified frequencies on all Class 1 through 5 mainline and controlled siding track that transports: (1) annual tonnage greater than 10 MGT; (2) regularly scheduled passenger rail service; or (3) trains containing hazardous materials, as defined in 49 CFR 171.8. FRA also proposes increasing the required frequency of TGMS inspections on Class 6 track. Currently, the TSS require TGMS inspections for high-speed track (Class 6 through 9), and lower speed track (Class 1 through 5) where the cant deficiency is more than 5 inches. As noted above, FRA's research indicates that all the railroads that would be subject to this proposed rule are already performing all visual inspections required by the TSS in addition to voluntarily performing TGMS inspections at or above the frequency that would be required by this NPRM. Thus, this NPRM would codify this industry practice as well as set forth requirements that include remedial action of detected track geometry defects within a specified timeframe, training, and recordkeeping. The NPRM proposes adding 49 CFR 213.236 to 49 CFR part 213, subpart F, and making conforming changes to § 213.333 to require TGMS inspections at least three times within a 365-day period on Class 1 through 5 mainline and controlled siding tracks that meets one of three stated requirements, and all of Class 6 track. There would be no change to the current frequency requirement for Class 7 and above track. The TGMS must be capable of transmitting data in a manner that permits the track owner to take proper remedial action within one hour of detection of a defect. This one-hour timeframe would represent the maximum permitted time between when a TGMS detects a geometry defect and when a track owner must take remedial action. The NPRM also proposes certain recordkeeping and training requirements for TGMS inspections, as well as minimum requirements for what must be included in TGMS reports. The NPRM also proposes certain changes to § 213.241 and identical changes to § 213.339. FRA proposes updating the list of types of inspections that are required to produce reports tha ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 115k characters. 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