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News & Events

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) seeks public comment on potential changes to the list of organizations that are eligible to submit the names of individuals for appointment as Committee members to the Railroad Safety Advisory Committee (RSAC), a Federal Advisory Commitee that provides advice and recommendations to FRA on railroad safety matters through a consensus process.

Interested persons must submit any comments to FRA by November 14, 2024. Comments should be submitted to Kenton Kilgore, RSAC Designated Federal Officer/RSAC Coordinator; FRA Office of Railroad Safety, at kenton.kilgore@dot.gov, who can also be reached at 202-365-3724.

For more information, please see the Federal Register notice at this link.

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The 67th meeting of the Railroad Safety Advisory Committee (RSAC) was held on October 9, 2024, at the National Association of Home Builders, located at 1201 15th Street NW, Washington, DC 20005. The meeting began at 8:30 am and adjourned at 2:35 pm. Topics of discussion included updates from RSAC working groups on: confidential close call reporting systems (C3RS); train braking modernization; wayside detectors; roadway worker protection (RWP); and electronic devices. FRA also reintroduced a task related to remote control locomotive operations. For more upcoming events, please check the RSAC Calendar.

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The 66th meeting of the Railroad Safety Advisory Committee (RSAC) was held on March 21, 2024, at the National Association of Home Builders, located at 1201 15th Street NW, Washington, DC 20005. The meeting was also livestreamed via Zoom. Topics of discussion included updates from RSAC working groups on confidential close call reporting systems (C3RS); train braking modernization; wayside detectors; and roadway worker protection (RWP). Documents from the meeting, including the agenda, are available here.

The meeting was recorded on Zoom, and you may watch it here. The required passcode is ^SX28jI#.  If you have any issues viewing the recording, please contact FRA RSAC Coordinator Kenton Kilgore at kenton.kilgore@dot.gov.    

For more upcoming events, please check the RSAC Calendar.

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Starting December 15th, 2023, you will be prompted to log in with either Login.gov or MyAccess when logging into RSAC. All DOT users will be required to log in using MyAccess with their PIV card. All external users will be required to log in using Login.gov. If you do not already have a Login.gov account, you will be required to register for a Login.gov account with the same e-mail that you have used to log into RSAC. Your Login.gov account will be automatically associated with your existing RSAC account to allow for a seamless transition. Further instructions are available on the RSAC login page on how to register and log in for the first time.

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The 65th meeting of the Railroad Safety Advisory Committee (RSAC) was held on October 26, 2023 at the National Association of Home Builders, located at 1201 15th Street NW, Washington, DC 20005. The meeting was also livestreamed via Zoom. Topics of discussion included efforts made regarding potential safety improvements related to the February 3, 2023 Norfolk Southern freight train derailment in East Palestine, OH. The meeting began at 9:30 am (Eastern Time) and adjourned at 1:45 pm. 

The meeting was recorded on Zoom, and you may watch it here. The required passcode is Y.y5Fs37.  If you have any issues viewing the recording, please contact FRA RSAC Coordinator Kenton Kilgore at kenton.kilgore@dot.gov.

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The 64th meeting of the Railroad Safety Advisory Committee (RSAC) was held on Monday, March 27, 2023 at the National Association of Home Builders located at 1201 15th Street NW, Washington, DC 20005. The meeting was also livestreamed via Zoom.  
The purpose of the meeting was to discuss safety improvements following recent train incidents, specifically those in East Palestine, Springfield, and Cleveland, Ohio. Agenda items included:
  • Remarks from FRA Administrator Amit Bose;
  • Review of recent Ohio train accidents and actions DOT has taken to address them;
  • Proposed task statement from FRA re. wayside defect detectors;
  • Proposed task statement from FRA re. expanding the definition of high hazard flammable trains; and,
  • Proposed task statement from FRA re. modernizing braking regulations, and increasing the use of electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP) brakes.

Because these proposed task statements had yet to be presented to RSAC, FRA did not call for a vote on them at this meeting. 

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The 63rd meeting of the Railroad Safety Advisory Committee (RSAC) was held virtually, via Microsoft Teams and telephone, on Monday, December 12, 2022 beginning at 9:30 a.m. (Eastern Standard Time). 

Agenda items for the meeting included updates on recent activity by RSAC Working Groups for Passenger Rail Safety; and Track Standards. The RSAC members voted to accept a recommendation from the Track Standards Working Group re. RSAC Task 2019-4, Track Geometry. There was also a report on the December 14, 2022 Train Crew Size public hearing that was held at the National Association of Home Builders, National Housing Center.   


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The 62nd meeting of the Railroad Safety Advisory Committee (RSAC) was held on Monday, June 27, 2022 from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm Eastern Time, at the National Association of Home Builders located at 1201 15th Street NW, Washington, DC 20005. Documents from the meeting, including the agenda, are available here. 

The meeting was video-recorded, and you may watch it here. The required passcode is JkfNEmf3. If you have any issues viewing the recording, please contact FRA RSAC Coordinator Kenton Kilgore at kenton.kilgore@dot.gov.