WASHINGTON — The Federal Railroad Administration is seeking public comments on Genesee & Wyoming short lines’ request to test Parallel Systems autonomous, self-propelled battery-electric freight cars.
The FRA, in a decision published in the Federal Register today, said it has accepted the Georgia Central Railway and Heart of Georgia Railroad petition for a test program and related temporary waivers of various safety regulations.
But the FRA will accept written public comments through March 18 and will schedule a public hearing. The safety agency also will conduct two separate reviews: One covering the requests for waivers of equipment regulations, and one covering the proposed test program.
“FRA will … address its evaluation of the test program in a separate decision after it completes its review of the requested waivers,” Chief Safety Officer John Karl Alexy wrote.
The Georgia Central and Heart of Georgia submitted their petition to the FRA on Aug. 10. Parallel’s cars, which lack couplers and use electronic brakes, are so unlike conventional rolling stock that the waiver petition asks the FRA to make the equipment temporarily exempt from car and locomotive regulations that cover everything from cabs and sanders to brake valves and uncoupling levers.
G&W’s 65-page document, titled “Application For Temporary Suspension Of Certain Rules And Exemption From Safety Appliance Standards For The Testing Of Novel Freight Rail Technology,” outlines the proposal for progressively more complex tests of Parallel Systems innovative equipment.
“The first priority of each phase of the Program is to assure safety of railroad employees, other persons and property, and the general public along the railroad lines that will be used for the Program,” according to the application.
Parallel’s cars — which can run alone or together as an autonomous platoon — can each carry a single 40-foot container weighing up to 65,000 pounds. They can operate at up to 25 mph and tackle grades as steep as 3%. “These design features are intended to help railroads better compete against trucks in the short-haul movement of intermodal containers rather than to replace conventional railroad rolling stock,” the application says.
The tests aim to evaluate the three primary components of the Parallel system: The autonomous vehicles themselves, the user terminals that allow people to control the equipment, and the computer servers that send data between the vehicles and the user terminals.
“FRA has conducted a preliminary review of Petitioner’s application to determine whether it meets the minimum regulatory requirements and provides enough information to be actionable by FRA, and FRA has found the application complete. However, upon analyzing the request, FRA has decided to treat Petitioners’ application as a request for waivers of compliance under the relevant provisions of 49 CFR part 211. FRA will also review Petitioners’ request for a test program under 49 CFR 211.51,” the FRA said in its decision.
Anyone wishing to provide written comments on the waiver and test proposal, Docket Number FRA-2023-0066, can submit them at www.regulations.gov and follow the online instructions for submitting comments.
Spokespeople for G&W and Parallel said the FRA’s decision was an expected step in the regulatory review process.
