Freight Railroad Safety

Download or read book Freight Railroad Safety written by U.s. Government Accountability Office and published by . This book was released on 2017-08-14 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Rail Safety Improvement Act of2008 (RSIA) overhauled requirementsfor how much time certain freightrailroad workers can spend on the job(called "hours of service"). Changesincluded limiting the number ofconsecutive days on duty before rest isrequired, increasing minimum rest timefrom 8 to 10 hours, and requiring resttime to be undisturbed. RSIA alsoprovided for pilot projects and waivers.RSIA's changes became effective forfreight railroads in July 2009. GAO wasasked to assess (1) the impact of thesechanges on covered train and engine(T&E) employees, includingimplications for fatigue, (2) the impactof the changes on the rail industry, and(3) actions the Federal RailroadAdministration (FRA) has taken tooversee compliance with hours ofservice requirements and implementRSIA provisions for pilot projects andwaivers. To perform this work, GAOanalyzed covered employee workschedules and used models to assessfatigue, surveyed the railroad industry,analyzed FRA inspection andenforcement data, and interviewedfederal and railroad officials as well asfatigue and sleep experts. "