Railroad Safety

Weaknesses Exist in FRA's Enforcement Program Gao ID: RCED-91-72 March 22, 1991

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO examined the adequacy of the Federal Railroad Administration's (FRA) enforcement program, focusing on its: (1) compliance with safety regulations; (2) implementation; and (3) timeliness in reviewing, transmitting, and settling penalties.

GAO found that FRA: (1) did not effectively ensure compliance with federal safety regulations through its enforcement program; (2) identified an increasing number of safety defects and violations despite an overall decline in railroad equipment, track, and employment; (3) repeatedly identified the same types of safety problems at the same railroads, including defective track, cracked or broken bars, disregard of operating rules and practices, and unsafe locomotives; (4) inspectors did not uniformly apply safety rules and regulations; (5) did not timely review, transmit, and settle civil penalties, partly due to a backlog of about 24,000 violations; and (6) could adopt a speedier civil penalty process by having its regional offices formally notify railroads of violations and penalty assessments, and eliminating the need for the Office of Chief Counsel's review.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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