Recent developments in railroad safety standards at FRA

Activities of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) concerning the development of safety standards for passenger railroads that may affect intercity and commuter rail operations. To ensure safety of increased traffic in passenger rail operations, FRA, with the assistance of RSAC, is developing or updating its safety standards on passenger equipment, locomotive cab conditions, track, signal, and train control. The paper sets out the general scope of those standards, in varying stages of completion, in the context of comparable voluntary consensus standards being considered by various working groups of APTA, IEEE, and ITS.