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.
To address the need to minimize differential movement at railway transitions for joint high-speed passenger and freight routes in the U.S., this research study identified and studied three problematic bridge approaches near Chester, PA, along Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor line and another two on...
Researchers developed a second-generation RAdar Ballast Inspection Tool (RABIT) using ground-penetrating radar (GPR) for use by track inspectors. This system is much lighter (26 lbs/11.8 kg) than its predecessor (63 lb/29 kg) and is truly portable. It has a single bi-static antenna pair that...
Agency finalizes three new research reports, building on previous safety warnings to Class I railroads and efforts to gather more information on long trains
WASHINGTON, D.C. – With train length and the number of long trains increasing, the Federal Railroad...
In the final phase of this research project, a team from Sharma & Associates, Inc. conducted moving train tests on a 228-car, Distributed Power (DP) configured train consist traveling from Minot, ND, to Vancouver, WA, using a Burlington Northern and Santa Fe (BNSF) train and crew. This...
In Phase III of this research, FRA sponsored Sharma & Associates, Inc. (SA), with significant assistance from Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railway, to conduct a series of tests to evaluate air brake system performance on a stationary train consisting of 200 cars in BNSF’s railroad...
In Phase II of this research project, FRA sponsored Wabtec to perform train air brake tests on long trains at their facility in Wilmerding, Pennsylvania, between January 2021 and March 2021. The air brake rack simulated trains with up to 200 control valves using a conventional (i.e., head-end...
Final rules announced today will require railroads to certify train dispatchers and signal employees and bolster training requirements
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) today...