#railroa

Railroad wildflowers #2

Nickel Plate 765 departing Chicago and North Western Terminal

Chicago

September 1984

At the forefront of every duty and task that freight railroads engage in or carry out is safety. You want to guarantee that infrastructure, employees, and the environment are kept safe.

To support this, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) requires that railroad companies (from a Class I to a regional or short line railroad) adhere to safety rules. Many railroads also adhere to the General Code of Operating Rules (GCOR). These rules encompass a range of safety-related concerns, from employee responsibilities to signaling equipment, responding to accidents, and carrying hazardous materials, to safety rules for crew working in a railroad yard or track.

Each individual railroad is responsible for making sure that they’re remaining compliant with every rule, regardless of their operating capacity, budgets, or the number of employees, and they do so through operational testing. In today’s competitive and quickly modernizing transportation industry, railroads can benefit from digital operational testing to support their safety and compliance goals.

The current state of operational testing

At a basic level, many of the core railroad operations that consume the day-to-day of a railroader must undergo periodic inspection. Not only do tests have to be created, executed, and logged, but railroads are also required to conduct a 6-month review of tests, inspections, and adjustment to the operational tests and inspections program.

Not only that, but railroads then have to maintain records of all inspections and tests, as well as records of their periodic, operational testing program reviews.

If you don’t remain compliant, you run into safety and security risks, resulting in penalties, fines, and liabilities for mistakes. The best way to avoid this is by achieving a higher level of compliance with FRA regulations and General Code of Operating Rules (GCOR).

It’s easier said than done.

The sheer number of operational rules that railroads must adhere to is daunting. How are you going to make sure that you cross your t’s and dot your i’s and avoid running into noncompliance and, ultimately, penalties? Manual creation and logging of tests makes the process time-consuming and far from the level of efficiency that railroads strive for.