WASHINGTON – Federal regulators have adopted a final rule that will streamline the process railroads follow when applying for emergency temporary trackage rights.
The new Surface Transportation Board rule, adopted in a decision today, eliminates a required 30-day notice period. Instead, the trackage-rights exemption would become effective within five days.
The rule will make it easier for railroads to seek trackage rights in response to unforeseen track outages from extreme weather or other events, the board said. Railroads may seek the emergency trackage rights where an outage is expected to last more than seven days and there are no other options to maintain levels of service.
The emergency rights initially can last no more than three months, the board said, but railroads have the option to seek a renewal of trackage rights for three additional months.
In its decision, the board rejected concerns that the National Transportation Safety Board [see “NTSB expresses concern …,” Trains News Wire, July 14, 2021] and the SMART-TD rail labor union raised about safety issues arising from crews operating in unfamiliar territory. The STB said current Federal Railroad Administration rules already govern the safe operation of trains in joint territory and that there was no need to duplicate those regulations.
This is a good thing to help railroads deal with bridges impacted by fires or flooding. Waiting 30 days for a reroute was overbearing.