When the FRA visits a railroad, how long do the FRA usually stay? I know if a railroad is having problems with saftey and derailments (CSX years ago) they can and usually stick around on the property for weeks. The FRA has been on the CN property for the last week in Wisconsin (Fond du Lac area) bad ordering engines and cars as they go through FDL Yard. I talked to a crew and the train that they brought in had 80 something cars and the FRA B.O. 14 cars plus both units. The same crew that I talked to had also talked to another crew and they said that 18 units plus 2 of 3 of theirs we’re BO. Took them 8 1/2 hours to get through the Yard (15 or so cars were BO also) and ultimately went dead on hours. Couple of crews suggested that the FRA crackdown orders came down straight from Washington for the EJ&E merger (against the “chosen one” opposition). I know of 2 crew members were fired “on-the-spot” for an operating infraction directly related to the FRA being there.
Back to the questions: How long does the FRA usually stay on ones property? Can the order come down from Washington DC to harass the CN? (to me, it could be possible because all they are doing is Bad Ordering cars and engines with little track detection movements with no saftey issues (that i’ve heard of or read lately) for awhile now).
The FRA is just doint their job. They’re not “harassing” CN in any way shape or form.
If an FRA inspector is bad ordering that many locomotives and cars in such a short period of time, then people aren’t doing their job. There’s only three possibilities. Car-knockers aren’t doing their job to report / fix damage or safety issues with cars, conductors are being careless and causing unnecessary daamage to equipment, and shop staff aren’t properly doing inspections and preparing power to head out on power.
On an inbound train of say, 100 cars, on an average day I can find atleast ten to fifteen cars with safety issues that need to be repaired. I can probably find another 8-10% or so that need brake shoes or other minor issues fixed.
The FRA can stay forever if they think it’s necessary.
Extended FRA inspections are usually the result of a manager or managers at one or more levels of the organization that are either ignorant of the law, flouting the law and hoping to not get caught too soon, or incompetent to enforce the law. Or all three.
What leads you to claim it is harassment? FRA regulations aren’t rocket science. Track, equipment, structures, or operational methods are either In Compliance or Not In Compliance. It’s not a grey area in my experience where the FRA can just make stuff up.
If you have information otherwise, please share it. If you have credible information that the FRA is acting punitively at the direction of the White House, and not just speculation by someone, please back it up.
I’ve seen DOT inspectors BO almost 30% of all trailers in one storage lot and 20% of all tractors in a 8 hr period and every one was legimate… At another time FAA inspectors went over my airline’s parked aircraft and grounded everyone of them for some or other maintenance issue. Some were fairly minor and a couple major. But they were all valid. Not being a sheet metal specialist I was unable to spot them but our maintenance people should have. So in all likelyhood they were valid on these RR items. I’ve always said the only thing worse that regulation and inspection is none. If the farmer or guard dog is away the fox will get into the chicken house!! The foxes certainly got into Wall Street and the Banks and Mr. Matholf!!!
Does the FRA have a timetable for inspecting the railroads (every quarter, every month, etc) And if they find problems, do they make a return visit to make sure all was corrected?
Can’t speak fot the mechanical or operating sides, but the track side tends to see track inspectors at least twice a year or at a frequency that he/she can get over the territory. They do keep a tab on what they wrote up the time before and more than a few Code 1’s have been written when he/she comes back and sees the same condition (usually because a band-aid attempt failed.)… The FRA folks can be a local supervisor’s ally as well as an antagonist. Agree totally with RWM’s comments.
I’d be willing to bet the the BO’s were almost all for minor deficiencies. Sounds like harrassment to me. Give power to a minor government officinado and he’ll delight in exercising it with little reasoning or common sense.
When the FRA comes to visit us, the bad-order count on departing trains quite often triples, or even quadruples. I’m not sure why that is, but the defects are usually of a nature not otherwise reported. Some of the FRA defects are things that are found in the brake test (piston travel, etc.). To me, it suggests that timely departures are too critical to someone who doesn’t wish to adequately staff the operation. FRA inspectors do not labor under such constraints. Yes, they’re just doing their job–nobody considers it harassment, but it’s just another of the many things railroaders now put up with.
Sounds like a man speaking from experience! How about sharing with us how you came to that conclusion about the FRA? Which ones of the regulations about equipment do you think are not worth enforcing?
We see the FRA at least once a month . and it usually isn;t a big deal . I too have seen the FRA Bad order all of the locos , they usually Bad order something , They have to justify their jobs too .
We’ll see the FRA a couple times a year - but we’re a fairly short tourist operation and our car inventory doesn’t significantly change. Thus we don’t run into a lot of rolling-stock related issues.
We were called out for our radio procedure a couple of years ago. Not enough “overs” and “outs” for one thing. With a fairly large staff of volunteers we don’t see the same people day-to-day, so consistency can be hard to maintain.
Tch!!! Such silliness!! I guess those who inspect drug manufacturing and food processing plants and bad order something are really just government flunkies justifying their paychecks, huh. There never is anything wrong with the stuff they stop…they just have nothing better to do, right?
Well, judging by the number of train wrecks vs. food recalls I think the food inspectors could learn a thing or 2 about how to inspect things properly from the FRA.[(-D]
On the track side, the inspector is out there hi-railing and out walking/ kicking rocks and switches with you all day twice a year. Then you also have the trips in the FRA geometry car (at which time the railroad’s track geometry car looks really good compared to the outmoded FRA piece of junk) which may travel on you even more if you run passengers. …and then Amthrax’s “Empty Beercan on The Dashboard” ride quality car…
Talked to a good friend that works for the CN and he said that they are there mostly because of complaints from within (engineers, conductors, carmen) and the main contributer is the carmen at Shops. They were laid off or hours reduced. Heard on the scanner that the yard had 48 BO cars ready to be picked up (by a northbound).
2 more crew members were terminated today, failed FRA test with a fussee. Buddy said that they were just off for a week (investigation) but the crew said that they did a pee-test and then terminated. From what I hear, the FRA guy in this area used to work for the WC and then CN and CN fired him years ago. Got a job with the FRA and had CN in his sights since.
There are checks and balances in place to prevent such things. How many years ago was he fired? Because there is a set of limitations on how soon an inspector can go to a road they previously worked for.
Also, if an inspector has a habit of going after one road more then another in a noticeable frequency, then it will be picked up on and noted by their superiors and dealt with.
An FRA inspector cannot drum up or invent defects, and if he/she tries it, the railway will be on the phone to his/her boss in about 2-3 seconds. Someone may be misinforming you.
Railway employees have a legal right to call the FRA if the railway is not enforcing FRA regulations. It’s federal law. Railways are not by law to intimidate or harass employees for calling the FRA. See http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/cfr_2003/octqtr/49cfr225.33.htm