Training, Qualification, and Oversight for Safety-Related Railroad Employees

The information collected is used -- and will be used -- by FRA to ensure that each employer--railroad or contractor -- conducting operations subject to Part 243 develops, adopts, submits, and complies with a training program for each category and subcategory of safety-related railroad employee. FRA reviews the required training programs to ensure that they include initial, ongoing, and on-the-job criteria; testing and skills evaluation measures designed to foster continual compliance with Federal standards; and the identification of critical safety defects and plans for immediate remedial actions to correct them. Responses to this information collection are mandatory. The respondent universe for this information collection comprises the 7 Class I railroads, 44 Class II railroads, 704 Class III railroads, and 795 contractors/railroad associations/ learning institutions/learning organizations. The frequency of collection is ion occasion. Affected employers/respondents are required to develop, adopt, submit an comply with a training program for safety-related railroad employees, which must be submitted to FRA for approval. Railroads utilizing contractor employees to perform safety-related duties and that rely on contractor-provided training for those employees must retain a record or validation document indicating that the contractor's program was approved by FRA. Respondents must submit to FRA an informational filing when previously approved programs are modified. New portions or revisions to an approved program must be submitted to FRA for approval. Railroads, training organizations, and learning institutions must maintain records for each safety-related railroad employee trained in accordance with Part 243. The purpose of this information collection is to ensure that each employer -- railroad or contractor -- conducting operations subject to Part 243 develops, adopts, submits, and complies with a training program for each category and sub-category of safety-related railroad employee. Under this rule, each training program must cover Federal safety laws, regulations, and orders that safety-related employees are required to comply with or the railroad rules that cover them and which are, at a minimum, as stringent.

The latest form for Training, Qualification, and Oversight for Safety-Related Railroad Employees expires 2021-04-30 and can be found here.