Southeast High-Speed Rail: Atlanta to Charlotte Passenger Rail Corridor

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), in cooperation with the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT), has completed a Tier I Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and signed a Record of Decision (ROD) for the proposed Atlanta to Charlotte Passenger Rail Corridor Investment...

Port Bienville Railroad Project

The combined Final Environmental Impact Statement (Final EIS) and Record of Decision (ROD) for the Port Bienville Railroad Project was approved by FRA on 2/3/2020 and does not include substantial changes to the proposed action in terms of environmental or...

Pacific Northwest Rail Corridor Program: Oregon Segment

On April 14, 2021, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), working with the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT or Project Sponsor), issued a Record of Decision (ROD) concurrently with a Tier 1 Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for a Corridor Investment Plan (CIP) pursuant to...

Glacier Rail Park/Kalispell Core Area Development and Trail Project Supplemental Environmental Assessment (SEA)

Improving Collision Post Crashworthiness of Legacy Locomotives

System-Wide Implementation of Rail Right-of-Way Incursion Treatments

From 2016 through 2018, the Volpe Center partnered with SunRail to develop, install, and evaluate promising vehicle ROW incursion prevention engineering treatments. Following this demonstration project, in early 2018 the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Long Island Rail Road (LIRR)...

Rail Safety Training for Law Enforcement

The Rail Safety Training Course for Law Enforcement project builds upon QinetiQ North America’s (QNA) previous experience in developing first responder training. Specifically, in 2015, QNA developed a video sponsored by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Office of Research, Development...

Current Environmental Reviews

This section contains environmental reviews for projects that are currently underway. 

2019 BAA Research Initiatives In Support of Rail Safety—Research with Universities

Heat Release Rate Requirements for Railcar Interior Finish: Appendices A Through E

This appendix is associated with Technical Report Heat Release Rate Requirements for Railcar Interior Finish and is summarized as such: Appendix A provides over 700 items in total, and over 650 of these include heat rate release (HRR) data from cone calorimeter tests; Appendix B contains cone...