Experts from ASLRRA’s staff represent the short line industry, and particularly our members, testifying before a variety of Congressional and Regulatory bodies. We are engaged in topics such as rail technology trends, economic impact of rail, increases in truck size and weight, regulations and compliance issues, customer service, interchange challenges, safety and tax policies such as the short line tax credit. Below you will find recent written testimonies given by ASLRRA on behalf of our members.
Washington, D.C., January 14, 2025 – ASLRRA, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) and the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) submitted joint comments in response to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) concerning workplace heat injury and illness prevention.
The associations ask OSHA to exclude railroads from the proposed rule for several reasons. First, they point out that railroads are subject to Federal Railroad Administration regulations concerning worker safety, and in addition to those rules being comprehensive, OSHA’s authority to regulate ends when another federal agency, like FRA, regulates in the same area. The comments also say OSHA’s rule does not consider the unique nature of the railroad operational environment and imposes overly burdensome and unnecessary requirements.
Washington, D.C., January 10, 2025 – ASLRRA has filed joint comments with the Association of American Railroads (AAR) in response to the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA) notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) amending the Federal Railroad Safety regulations that address temporary situations where positive train control (PTC) technology is not enabled.
In their comments, ASLRRA and AAR note that they support a rulemaking that would offer necessary and logical relief for operations occurring under unplanned system outages. However, the associations oppose some recommended changes considered unduly burdensome, such as requiring railroads to limit operations to restricted speeds after 24 hours of an unplanned PTC outage, and note that other processes outlined in the rulemaking are impermissibly vague and burdensome.
Washington, D.C., February 6, 2025 – AAR joined ASLRRA in responding to a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) issued by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) on Enhancing Surface Cyber Risk Management, noting that while well-intentioned, the proposed rule is often too focused on matters that do not meaningfully contribute to a robust cybersecurity program; regulation of these areas would place unnecessary demands on railroad operations and create needless expenses — sometimes with the unintended consequence of distracting and detracting from railroads’ existing security efforts. Specific concerns noted included unclear or overly burdensome proposals as to governance, “critical cyber systems,” and supply chain management, as well as cybersecurity incident reporting requirements that are inconsistent with already existing regulations. The Associations also suggest various ways in which TSA might improve upon the rule in furtherance of the shared goal of enhancing cybersecurity.
Washington, D.C., January 29, 2025 – ASLRRA and the Association of American Railroads (AAR) have submitted comments to the Surface Transportation Board (STB) in response to a petition filed by the U. S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division (the petitioners) requesting the STB consider amendments to regulations implementing section 208 of the National Trails System Act Amendments of 1983.
The petitioners are asking the STB to initiate a rulemaking to make these regulatory changes, which would affect the railbanking process. Railbanking is an agreement made between a railroad and another entity to preserve a rail corridor and allow use as a trail until the corridor needs to be put into service again.
ASLRRA and AAR do not believe that such a rulemaking is necessary or advisable. Their comments say that such changes to the regulations would make proceedings more complicated and upend decades of established precedent on the matter. If the STB decides to proceed with a rulemaking proceeding, the associations urge the Board to set a procedural schedule for the submission of comments, reply comments and other proposals.
Washington, D.C., January 28, 2025 – ASLRRA has submitted comments in response to a notice published by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) proposing a waiver of its Buy America requirements for certain locomotive projects. The proposed waiver would apply to the purchase of pre-owned locomotives that would be used as the underframe or chassis for renewable-energy locomotives. The general applicability waiver would be issued for FRA-funded projects that involve procuring used locomotives to be overhauled. ASLRRA supports the FRA’s proposed waiver. In its comments, the Association notes that short line railroads routinely use, rebuild and repower old locomotives, and using the chassis of these units is not only a standard industry practice, it is practical, efficient, economical and less wasteful. ASLRRA also recommends waivers for elements of locomotive batteries, battery packs and cores, associated control systems and charging stations due to the current lack of a fully Buy America-compliant domestic supply chain for all this new rail-sector equipment.
Washington, D.C., January 23, 2025 – Today Chuck Baker, President of the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association (ASLRRA), testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure’s Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials in a hearing titled, America Builds: Examining America’s Freight and Passenger Rail Network. In his testimony, Baker outlined the three areas critical for short line success that should be considered as part of any future Surface Transportation Reauthorization Bill – CRISI funding, reasonable regulations, and modal equity. A copy of his comments is available here.
Washington, D.C., January 7, 2025 – ASLRRA has filed joint comments with the Association of American Railroads (AAR) in response to the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA) notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) concerning track geometry measurement system (TGMS) inspections. The Associations call on the FRA to withdraw or substantially modify the proposed rule because it imposes arbitrary and unjustified requirements, some of which would be impossible to satisfy. ASLRRA and AAR ask the agency to consider proposing a performance-based TGMS rule, such as that proposed by the industry in 2022, that would promote safety and encourage innovation by pairing a TGMS requirement with reduced visual inspections; providing a more reasonable and balanced approach to the required frequency of inspections and time for remediation; and allowing railroads to implement TGMS without the addition of the costs and inefficiencies that would be imposed by the current proposed rule.
