New Passenger Rail Rolling Stock Safety Standards Proposed

In December.  the FRA published a proposal to codify a set of technical evaluation criteria for railroads seeking to use alternatively designed passenger rolling stock using Crash Energy Management design principles

The current regulations rely on equipment design requirements which limit application of recent technology.  The proposed new rules use more performance-based requirements to demonstrate safety in alternative ways. FRA believes this rule would have a net beneficial effect on the passenger rail industry and society as a whole.

The technical criteria are based on established international standards and significant research and testing both the industry and DOT's Volpe Transportation Systems Center Codifying the technical criteria would dovetail with alternative crashworthiness performance requirements FRA established in part 238 for the front-end structures of cab cars and multiple-unit (MU) locomotives, thereby broadening application of such requirements to other main structures.

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