G/TBT/N/USA/1562  
14 January 2020  
(20-0386) Page: 1/2 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade  Original:  English  
 
  
NOTIFICATION  
The following notification is being circulated in accordance with Article 10.6  
 
1. Notifying Member:  UNITED STATES OF AME RICA  
If applicable, name of local government involved (Article 3.2 and 7.2):   
2. Agency responsible:  Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) [1589]  
Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers , email and website 
addresses, if available) of agency or authority designated to handle comments 
regarding the notification shall be indicated if different from above:   
Please submit comments to: USA WTO TBT Enquiry Point, Email: usatbtep@nist.gov  
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [X], 2.10.1 [   ], 5.6.2 [X], 5.7.1 [   ], other :  
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff 
heading. ICS numbers may be provided in addition, where applicab le): Railroad 
track safety; Railway or tramway track construction material of iron or steel, the 
following: rails, check -rails and rack rails, switch blades, crossing frogs, point rods and 
other crossing pieces, sleepers (cross -ties), fish -plates, chairs, chair wedges, sole plates 
(base plates), rail clips, bedplates, ties and other material specialized for jointing or fixing 
rails (HS 7302); Quality (ICS 03.120), Test conditions and procedures in general 
(ICS 19.020), Railway engineering in general (ICS 45.020), Materials and components 
for railway engineering (ICS 45.040), Rails and railway components (ICS 45.080)  
5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document:  Rail Integrity 
Amendments & Track Safety Standards (27 page(s), in E nglish)  
6. Description of content:  Notice of proposed rulemaking - FRA is proposing to revise its 
regulations governing the minimum safety requirements for railroad track. The proposed 
changes include allowing inspection of rail using continuous rail testing; allowing the use 
of flange -bearing frogs in crossing diamonds; relaxing the guard check gage limits on 
heavy -point frogs used in Class 5 track; removing an inspection -method exception for 
high-density commuter lines; and other miscellaneous revisions. Overall, the proposed 
revisions wo uld benefit track owners, railroads, and the public by reducing unnecessary 
costs and incentivizing innovation, while not negatively affecting rail safety.  
7. Objective and rationale, including the nature of urgent problems where 
applicable:  Protection of  human health or safety; Quality requirements  
8. Relevant documents:   
• 84 Federal Register (FR) 72526, 31 December 2019; Title 49 Code of Federal 
Regulations (CFR) Part 213:   
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR -2019-12-31/html/2019 -27748.htm  
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR -2019-12-31/pdf/2019 -27748.pdf  
• Regulatory Impact Analysis available on Regulations.gov at: 
https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=FRA -2018-0104-0001 G/TBT/N/USA/1562  
 
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  9. Proposed date of adoption:  To be determined  
Proposed date of entry into force:  To be determined  
10. Final date for comments:  2 March 2020  
11. Texts available from:  National enquiry point [ ] or address, telephone and fax 
numbers and email and website addresses, if available , of other body:   
https://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2020/TBT/USA/20_0398_00_e.pdf