An official website of the United States government
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.
This document is the final report for Phase I of a two-phase research project, “User-Centered Design for Railroad Automation (UCD-Rail),” to develop and demonstrate an improved interface between human operators and advanced automation in rail systems. Applying user-centered design methodology,...
This report assesses the safety benefits of a real-time railroad crossing information system for emergency responders. The study focuses on reducing first responder delays at rail crossings, which have become increasingly critical due to the rise in average train lengths in the United States....
The Federal Railroad Administration contracted a research team from The University of Texas at Austin in 2023 to develop a framework for evaluating the updated costs and benefits of freight railway electrification considering traditional and modern innovative methods. The team reviewed past and...
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) tasked the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe) to conduct an evaluation of the Confidential Close Call Reporting System (C3RS) implementation processes, sustainability, and safety outcomes. The research team assessed program...
The main aim of this project was to develop a wheel-rail creep force model that accounts for the effects of third-body layers resulting from the application of a range of top-of-rail (TOR) materials. Initially, researchers carried out experimental assessments of different types of TOR products...
This report summarizes work performed to improve identification of high-profile grade crossings throughout the nation’s railway network. In May 2019 two rail survey vehicles operated under the FRA Office of Safety’s Automated Track Inspection Program were equipped with LiDAR 3D scanner arrays...
The Federal Railroad Administration sponsored a research team from Duke University to study railroad dispatcher workload in association with automation under various scenarios and task demands. The team developed a computational model to help examine, understand, and predict the effects of the...
Railroads with Positive Train Control (PTC) are experiencing increased delays due to communication failures and outages, during which trains are compelled to move at slower speeds while operating in non-PTC fallback mode. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) sponsored Decisiontek, LLC to...