Five Killer Quora Answers To Federal Railroad
The Federal Railroad Administration
The Federal Railroad Administration is one of the DOT's 10 agencies involved in intermodal transportation. Its purpose is to ensure safe and reliable transportation of both people and goods.
FRA field inspectors regularly inspect railroad tracks, signals and train control systems, as and operating practices. They also investigate complaints.
Definition
Federal railroads are rail transporters in the United States controlled by the federal government. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) establishes and enforces safety regulations, administers funds for railroads, and investigates ways to improve rail transportation systems. The FRA is one of 10 agencies of the U.S. Department of Transportation which is responsible for intermodal transportation. Its chief executive officers are the Administrator and Deputy Administrator.
The agency is responsible for all freight and passenger transportation that is conducted through the nation's rail network. The agency also coordinates the federal funding for rail transportation and assists in the rehabilitation of the Northeast Corridor passenger service. The agency also regulates ownership and operation of intermodal facilities including tracks, right of way equipment, real estate and rolling stock. It also oversees federal rail transportation programs.
FRA's duties also include establishing through regulation, and after an opportunity to comment the procedure through which anyone can report to the Secretary Homeland Security any railroad security problems or deficiencies. The agency also establishes policies, conducts inspections, and reviews compliance with its rail laws in six different technical disciplines, including track signals, track and train control locomotive power and equipment; operating procedures as well as hazmat and highway-rail grade intersections.
The agency is tasked with the responsibility to make sure the rail transportation system is safe, efficient and sustainable. The agency also requires that railroads maintain a safe work environment and provide adequate training for their employees. The agency also sets and enforces railroad prices to ensure that the public is charged fair prices for transportation services.
The Federal Railroad Administration also enacts and enforces rules to prevent discrimination against railroad employees. They also shield whistleblowers against retaliation from railroad carriers. The agency also has a procedure for railroad employees to file complaints about the company's conduct.
The main goal of the agency is to enable the secure efficient, reliable, and secure movement of goods and people to ensure a secure America both now and in the future. The FRA accomplishes this through regulating railroad safety, managing programs for assistance to railroads and conducting research that supports better safety of railroads and national rail transportation policies, coordinating and supporting rail networking development and assisting the private sector manage railroads. In the past, railroads controlled the market with no competition. This meant that the industry frequently abused its position in the market. Hence, Congress established the Interstate Commerce Commission and other regulatory agencies to curb the abuses of railroad monopolies.
Purpose
The federal railroad is a federal agency that sets rules, oversees funds for rail and studies ways to improve the nation's rail transport system. It is responsible for the railroad infrastructure of the United States and manages freight and passenger railroads. It is one of 10 agencies in the U.S. Department of Transportation. It is also responsible for maintaining and expanding the current rail infrastructure.
The government's primary responsibility in the field of rail transportation is safety. The Federal Railroad Administration is responsible for this. It has several divisions which oversee the country's freight and passenger railway operations. The largest of them is the Office of Railroad Safety, with about 350 safety inspectors. It is responsible for conducting inspections that determine the compliance with regulations in six technical disciplines that include track signal and train control, motive power and equipment, operating practices, hazmat and highway-rail grade crossings.
FRA has several departments, including the Office of Railroad Policy and Development. It is responsible for the programs that are meant to improve freight and passenger rail transportation, such as the Northeast Corridor Future. The department also is responsible for the grants that help railways, and it collaborates with other agencies in planning for the nation's rail requirements.
Another important duty of the FRA is the enforcement of fela federal employers liability act laws regarding railroads and their employees. This includes stopping railroads from discriminating against employees, and making sure that all injured railway employees are provided with transportation to the nearest hospital for initial aid treatment. Additionally, railroads are prohibited from refusing or delaying medical treatment for injured railway employees.
The FRA is the main regulator of the passenger and freight rail industries, but there are other agencies that oversee the economic aspects of rail transport. Surface Transportation Board is responsible for determining rates and governing the economics of the industry. It has regulatory authority over railroad mergers and line sales construction and abandonment. After a period of public consultation, the agency is also responsible for establishing regulations that will allow anyone to file a complaint about any alleged rail safety violations.
Functions
Railroads transport goods and people between cities in the developed nations, as well as remote villages in countries that are less developed. They transport raw materials from manufacturing and processing facilities, and final products from these facilities to warehouses or stores. Railroads are an essential mode of transportation for many essential commodities, including oil, coal and grains. In 2020, freight railroads carried more than a quarter of the freight volume in the United America [PDF(PDF).
The federal railroad is managed like any other business. It has departments for marketing and operations, sales, and an executive department. The department of marketing and sales works with current and potential customers to determine what kind of rail services they need and how much they will cost. The operations department then develops rail services that meet these requirements at the cheapest cost to earn money for railroad. The executive department supervises the entire operation, making sure every department is operating efficiently.
The government provides support to railways through a variety of means such as grants and subsidised rates for government-owned traffic. Congress also provides money to help build and maintain stations and tracks. These subsidies are often a part of the revenue that railroads receive through ticket sales and freight contracts.
In the United States, the government is the owner of the railway for passengers, Amtrak. It is a quasi-public for-profit corporation with a significant stockholder that is the United States government.
The Federal Railroad Administration's (FRA) main task is to formulate and enforce safety regulations for railroads. This involves regulating the mechanical condition of trains as well as the safety and health of railroad employees. FRA also collects data on rail security to determine trends and areas that require improvement or regulatory attention and to determine trends.
In addition to these primary duties, FRA works on various other projects aimed at improving the economy and security of railroad transportation in the United States. For instance, the agency seeks to lower the obstacles that can hinder railroads in adopting positive train control (PTC). PTC is an emergency safety system that utilizes sensors and on-board computers to automatically stop the train when it is too close to another vehicle or object.
History
The first railroads in the United States were built in the 1820s and 1830s, mostly in New England and the Mid-Atlantic states. The railroads greatly accelerated industrialization in these areas and also brought more food products to the market. This made the country more independent and less dependent on imports.
In the latter part of the nineteenth century the railroad industry went through an "Golden Age," during which many new, more efficient rail lines were built and passenger travel via train became popular. This was largely because of the government's efforts to expand the railroad system. The government, for instance provided land grants to homesteaders in order to encourage them to move to the West. Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads also collaborated to build the first transcontinental railway, which allowed travelers to travel from New York City to San Francisco in just six days.
In the first half century, however, the demand for passenger rail services decreased, and other modes of transportation such as cars and planes increased in popularity. In the meantime, the stifling of regulation stifled railroads' economic ability to compete. A string of bankruptcies, service cuts, and deferred maintenance was the next step. In addition, a misguided railroad regulations from the federal government led to the decline of the industry.
Around 1970 the federal government began to ease the regulatory shackles on railroads. The Surface Transportation Board was established to oversee the economic aspects of the industry such as mergers and rates for railroads. The Federal Railroad Administration, which supervises freight and passenger transportation and sets safety standards for rail was also established.
Since then, a great deal of investment has been made in the country's railway infrastructure. The Northeast Corridor, for example was rebuilt to accommodate more efficient, faster and modern high speed ground transportation (HSGT) trains. There are also efforts to develop more efficient freight rail. In the future, FRA hopes to continue its collaboration with all transportation agencies to ensure safe and reliable railroads. The agency's role is to ensure that the nation's transportation system runs as efficiently as is possible.