New RR Laws

Passenger railroads, nationwide…will now be required to install video recorders inside their locomotives, but the head of the National Transportation Safety Board says the new rule is flawed because it excludes freight trains like the one that derailed and caught fire in eastern Ohio earlier this year. The Federal Railroad Administration didn’t respond directly to the criticism of the rule requiring cameras showing both the train crew’s actions and a view from the front of passenger trains. FRA officials say…freight railroads weren’t addressed because a 2015 law Congress passed…only required regulators to establish a rule for passenger railroads. But many freight railroads, including all the biggest ones that handle a majority of shipments nationwide, have installed cameras voluntarily, starting with outward-facing cameras and later adding ones showing the crews’ actions.