The United States railroad system consists of a vast network of operations that includes over 780 railroads with more than 230,000 employees and 200,000 miles of track in operation. The freight railroad industry is dominated by the seven largest freight railroads, referred to as Class I railroads, which collectively operate over 1.7 trillion ton-miles and accounted for more than 90 percent of annual railroad-freight revenues in 2012. There are also 10 Class II freight railroads that typically operate over 350 to 900 miles per railroad, and about 750 smaller Class III freight railroads with less than 350 miles of track that typically perform point to point service over short distances. In addition, Amtrak and 29 commuter railroads collectively carry an average of about 670 million passengers a year over 23 billion miles. FRA provides regulatory oversight of the safety of United States railroads, both passenger and freight. FRA issues and enforces numerous safety regulations including requirements governing track, signal and train control systems, highway-rail grade crossing warning systems, mechanical equipment including locomotives and cars, and railroad- operating practices. FRA also enforces regulations related to the safe transportation of hazardous materials by rail. RSIA overhauled federal rail safety requirements by directing FRA to, among other things, develop additional new rail safety regulations and guidance in areas such as railroad risk reduction plans and highway-rail grade crossing safety. RSIA authorized an additional 200 positions for FRA during fiscal years 2009 through 2013, to meet these new responsibilities, but federal budget constraints have prevented FRA from filling these positions. In addition, from 2008 to 2010, FRA’s responsibilities grew from its primary focus of improving safety to a broader portfolio of safety and railroad project development activities. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and subsequent appropriation acts have provided more than $10 billion for rail corridor improvement, development, and planning grants. The overall trend in rail accidents has been positive over the last 30 years. Rail accident rates declined dramatically from 1980 to 1987, and then fluctuated around four accidents per million train miles from 1992 to 2003. However, there has been a clear positive trend in recent years, with the rate declining about 50 percent between 2004 and 2012. As a result, according to FRA officials and FRA data, 2012 was the safest year on record (see fig. 1). Railroads are required to report the causes and other information regarding all reportable rail accidents to the FRA. FRA classifies the causes of train accidents into five categories: train operations – human factors; track, roadbed and structures; signal and communication; mechanical and electrical failures; and miscellaneous causes. According to FRA data, track and human factors causes accounted for more than 70 percent of all the 25,342 reported railroad accidents from 2003 to 2012 (see fig. 2). Those accidents caused by human factors result from actions such as improperly positioning track switches, moving train engines or rail cars without proper authority, leaving rail cars in a position that obstructs the track, or failing to secure a sufficient number of handbrakes. Accidents caused by defective track result from such things as defective or ineffective crossties; broken or worn switch points; or broken, fissured or fractured rail components. According to railroad and other stakeholders, a number of factors have contributed to improvements in rail safety including: improved financial health of railroads, investments in railroad infrastructure, and adoption of new safety regulations or safety-related technologies. Even with the significant reduction in accident rates, however, from 2003 to 2012, an average of 10 people were killed and 300 people were injured in train accidents annually. In addition to FRA-reportable train accidents, highway-rail grade crossing accidents and trespasser incidents constitute a majority of all fatalities associated with the railroad industry. In 2012, there were 271 fatalities at highway-rail grade crossings in the United States, and 554 trespasser fatalities (see fig. 3). While there has been some decline in the number of highway-rail grade crossing fatalities over the past 10 years, reducing the number of trespasser fatalities has been more difficult. Improving this aspect of safety is complicated by the fact that the amount of railroad right-of-way and number of highway-rail grade railroad crossings in the United States is very large. As of the end of 2012, FRA’s national inventory identified 210,621 public and private highway-rail grade crossings. Reducing highway-rail crossing and trespasser fatalities is difficult because a train cannot swerve or easily stop to prevent collisions. According to FRA officials, the average freight train is about one to one- and-a-quarter miles in length and at 55 miles per hour it can take a mile or more to come to a stop after the locomotive engineer applies the emergency brake. FRA conducts inspections to ensure railroads’ compliance with federal safety regulations. Thirty states also partner with FRA in providing FRA- certified state railroad-safety inspectors, who have been delegated authority to enforce federal safety regulations. Many railroads have additional safety programs, rules, and technologies beyond the required federal standards. FRA is a small agency with limited resources available to execute the large scope of its oversight responsibility especially compared to the size of the industry it regulates. By FRA’s own estimation, its inspectors have the ability to inspect less than 1 percent of the federally-regulated railroad system. Therefore, railroads have the primary responsibility for safety, and FRA relies on a number of strategies to achieve the maximum possible oversight of the system. These strategies include conducting inspections, enforcing compliance with regulations, issuing new regulations, and coordinating with industry to employ additional safety measures beyond the federal requirements, when possible. FRA executes its regulatory and inspection responsibilities through a staff of railroad safety experts, inspectors, and other professionals. For example, to determine a railroad’s compliance with FRA regulations, inspectors examine track, equipment, signal devices, employee actions, and procedures and review maintenance and accident records. FRA also conducts focused inspections involving inspectors from a variety of disciplines or multiple inspectors from a single discipline, working together at a specific location or rail facility to target railroad issues that pose the greatest safety risk, based on inspection data, accident history, rail traffic density, and professional judgment. As of fiscal year 2013, there were 347 FRA safety inspectors, in five safety disciplines, assigned to eight regional offices across the nation. These disciplines are track, signal and train control, motive power and equipment, operating practices, and hazardous materials. (See table 1.) In addition, FRA’s regional offices include safety specialists and program managers for highway-rail grade crossing safety and trespass prevention. Railroads are required to comply with the safety standards set in federal safety regulations. When railroads do not comply or identified defects are serious, FRA may cite violations and assess civil penalties, either against railroads or individuals. Thus, FRA’s approach is compliance-oriented and does not holistically assess safety problems across a railroad’s system. On average, FRA collected about $15.4 million per year in civil penalty final assessments or settlements between fiscal years 2009 through 2012. Although FRA uses civil penalties as its primary enforcement tool, under its authority, it can also take other enforcement actions. For example, FRA can issue warnings, special notices for repair, compliance and emergency orders and disqualification orders. For example, in 2012, to remove an imminent and unacceptable threat to public safety, FRA issued an emergency order to prevent operation of trains over a highway-rail grade crossing until the railroad restored the active warning devices to proper working order. Figure 4 shows a serious defect identified by an FRA motive power and equipment safety inspector while conducting an inspection prior to a train departure. A broken safety appliance such as the inoperable hand brake wheel can result in the inability to properly secure a train during an emergency and can result in the injury or death of a railroad employee. This defect resulted in a citation because the condition did not meet the federal railroad safety appliance standard. In 1996, FRA implemented a collaborative approach to developing and issuing rail safety rules and regulations by creating the Railroad Safety Advisory Committee (RSAC). The RSAC includes stakeholders in the rail community such as government entities, railroads, rail labor organizations, trade associations, suppliers, and others that work with FRA to develop solutions to railroad safety and regulatory issues. FRA develops and issues rail safety rules and regulations while involving RSAC members in the rulemaking process. The RSAC recommendations are advisory, and FRA may deviate from them, if it so chooses. Recent RSAC-supported rulemakings have addressed passenger rail hours of service, conductor certification, locomotive safety standards, and positive train control. Achieving consensus from the stakeholders can be challenging and time-intensive; however, six Class I railroads, one rail labor organization, and one other rail-safety stakeholder we interviewed told us they believe this process is an improvement over FRA’s prior approach, which did not include them in the process before issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking. In addition, they noted that in general, the RSAC partnership has improved the quality of railroad safety initiatives and fostered a greater level of compliance with safety regulations. Even with the RSAC process, new technologies pose a challenge to FRA regulations. In 2008, FRA noted that its regulations cannot keep up with the rapid pace of technological change, citing, for example, the 8 years it took to put one new technology signal and train control regulation in place. According to railroad officials, FRA is not always able to quickly adapt and respond to new railroad technologies. This situation affects the FRA inspectors’ ability to maintain oversight. For example, two Class I railroad officials we spoke with said that technological improvements such as automated sensors that measure physical attributes or thermal output on trains can be more comprehensive and identify defects that visual inspections cannot.