Fewer than six months after scrapping a rail labor, management and supplier-supported Railroad Safety Advisory Committee (RSAC), the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is restoring it, but with a smaller membership to be determined by FRA’s administrator. A Jan. 13 Federal Register notice said RSAC’s “charter renewal will be effective for two years.”
RSAC, created in March 1996 to provide the FRA with collaborative input from stakeholders representing “various rail industry perspectives,” will be reduced in size from its original 25 members, who historically have been chosen for their “range of views and expertise.” They have represented freight and passenger railroads, rail labor, and organizations representing rail passengers, rail shippers and rail suppliers.
An FRA spokesperson told Railway Age that a second Federal Register notice will be published within the next few weeks to advise the new membership size and seek applications for membership. RSAC, said the spokesperson, “will still reflect key industry and labor stakeholder organizations along with other railroad policy constituent groups and organizations.”
The August 2025 scrapping of RSAC was announced while the FRA was awaiting Senate confirmation of a new administrator. Advice of its resurrection comes with a new administrator in place—David A. Fink, a former rail executive nominated by POTUS 47.
In its August announcement scrapping RSAC, the FRA cited instructions from POTUS 47 and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy of “refocusing” RSAC and other Executive Branch advisory committees “on what matters.” The announcement said “some committees have lost sight of the mission and have been overrun with individuals whose sole focus is their radical DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) and climate agenda.” POTUS 47 has made clear since beginning his second term that federal programs celebrating culture, racial and gender difference offend him, as do efforts to slow climate change.
Behind RSAC’s creation was FRA’s first female administrator, Jolene Molitoris, whose legacy is consensus-building. She convened an informal version of RSAC in 1994 to focus on reducing track worker deaths and injuries. Its success drove RSAC’s expansion.
