Here we go with another shutdown of democratic free speech by a POTUS and his inner circle consolidating power in pursuit of a unitary form of government controlling every aspect of American life from the arts, to Congress, to the courts, to education, to independent federal agencies, non-government organizations, corporate decision making and transportation.
In a formal statement issued by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Aug. 13 and citing instructions from POTUS 47 and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, FRA announced it is deconstructing its Rail Safety Advisory Committee (RSAC) and “refocusing [it and other Executive Branch] federal advisory committees on what matters.”
Without specifics, the statement asserts that “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.” The statement says DOT has “intent to reconstitute membership” without providing a date or preferred membership qualifications.
Duffy previously weaponized the Department of Transportation against transit, high-speed rail and Amtrak funding, and ordered DOT agencies to cancel DEI programs whose appreciation of cultural, racial and gender differences offends POTUS 47.
Notably, FRA has been without a Senate-confirmed Administrator since POTUS 47 took office. His nominee, former Pan Am Railways President David Armstrong Fink, cleared a Senate Commerce Committee confirmation hearing in May, but his name has yet to reach the Senate floor for a confirmation vote.
There is no evidence RSAC has offended the POTUS as asserted. FRA, under previous Republican and Democratic Administrations, celebrated RSAC’s “invaluable input” toward improving railroad safety nationwide, terming RSAC “a unique tool of democratic government.” RSAC’s mission, say previous FRA statements, is to “develop new regulatory standards, through a collaborative process, with all segments of the rail community working together to fashion mutually satisfactory solutions on safety regulatory issues.”
RSAC was created in 1996 by the longest serving (1993-2000) and first female FRA 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 its expansion.
Participating in RSAC, up to POTUS 47 and Duffy’s ordered execution of it, have been representatives of railroads; rail labor; and organizations representing rail passengers, rail shippers, manufacturers, suppliers and states.
At its October 2024 meeting—RSAC typically convenes formally twice each year, but its working groups more often—discussion topics included C3R (confidential close call reporting), train braking modernization, wayside detectors, roadway worker protection and electronic devices. RSAC is the only forum for such a diverse group to share knowledge on these and other complex rail safety issues.
“The process has not always been perfect nor always productive, but there were outcomes beneficial to everyone,” says a former Class I mechanical officer who participated two RSAC Working Groups—locomotive crashworthiness and locomotive cab sanitation and working conditions—in the late 1990s and early 2000s. “We incorporated the existing AAR standards for crashworthy noses and fuel tanks into FRA locomotive safety regulations. That effort alone by my estimate saved lives by preventing ‘cab crush’ and fuel fires. Overall, I believe the RSAC WG process allowed the unions to see that railroad managers were like them—people—and capable of reaching commonsense solutions.
“Cab sanitation was a ‘rapidly boiling pot’ situation as the unions had made the FRA aware that cab sanitation on some railroads was truly deplorable. One eastern railroad took the extreme step of replacing ‘dry hoppers’ with a welded angle-iron ‘seat frame’ on which each employee would attach a black plastic ‘disposal bag’ that was to be placed after use in a sanitary waste dumpster upon arrival at their destination. To enforce use, each bag was serial-numbered and recorded as to which employee was issued which bag. Many bags eventually ended up in trees along the right-of-way. Residents threatened to sue the railroad. The unions threatened a strike. FRA, in the first RSAC cab sanitation Working Group meeting in 1998, gave the railroads one month to come up with a joint solution, or FRA would quickly issue a regulation without any involvement by anyone, and the unions would strike. The eastern railroad said ‘hell no.’
“I returned to headquarters at my railroad and met with the executive vice president of operations, suggesting he talk with his eastern counterpart to urge common sense. He did, and they ‘saw the light.’ That railroad subsequently installed airliner-style microprocessor-controlled vacuum toilets (though after about 10 years they discovered the toilets were unsuited for a locomotive environment).”
Railroads, as described above, have had difficulties with RSAC, but it has everything to do with FRA Administrator neutrality. The RSAC advisory process, when respected, brings together a peer group representing a variety of academic disciplines, practical experience, diverse viewpoints and data open to collegial scrutiny.
Its low point came in 2014 with allegations that then Administrator Joseph C. Szabo—a former union officer—placed the agency’s thumb on the scale in pursuing rail labor’s objective of minimum two-person crews on intercity freight trains and in switch yards nationwide.
The Szabo-led FRA said its two-person minimum crew-size mandate was collaborated with RSAC. But the Association of American Railroads, whose members were and are seeking to operate some trains with one-person crews, termed the process “a sham,” saying “there was no consensus. There was no vote taken. [FRA] spurned the collaborative RSAC process by declaring in advance the only result it would accept.”
When FRA published its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) in March 2016, following Szabo’s departure, it confirmed “FRA cannot provide reliable or conclusive statistical data to suggest whether one-person crew operations are generally safer or less safe than multiple-person crew operation.”
The NPRM was eventually withdrawn when career railroader Ronald L. Batory was Administrator, but his successor, Amit Bose, in 2024 finalized a minimum two-person crew requirement now being challenged in federal court as running afoul of a Supreme Court holding that regulatory agency edicts have “a rational connection between the facts found and the choice made.”
As to the crew-size matter, the RSAC process is not to blame if FRA, as alleged, failed to consider the full record before it as presented by all RSAC stakeholders. Overall, RSAC has performed as advertised and enjoyed, prior to this Administration’s attack, laudatory bipartisan comments.
At the independent (of the Executive Branch) Surface Transportation Board, several advisory groups continue to function, with the agency seeking to fill membership vacancies.
RSAC participating organizations include:
- American Association of Private Railroad Car Owners
- American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials
- American Chemistry Council
- American Petroleum Institute
- American Public Transportation Association
- American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association
- American Train Dispatchers Association
- Association of American Railroads
- Association of State Rail Safety Managers
- Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen
- Brotherhood of Maintenance of Ways Employes
- Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen
- The Chlorine Institute
- Commuter Rail Coalition
- The Fertilizer Institute
- Heritage Rail Alliance
- Institute of Makers of Explosives
- International Association of Machinists
- International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
- National Conference of Firemen & Oilers
- National Railroad Construction & Maintenance Association
- Rail Passengers Association
- Railway Supply Institute
- SMART Transportation Division
- Transportation Communications Union
- Transportation Workers Union
Railway Age Capitol Hill Contributing Editor Frank N. Wilner is author of “Railroads & Economic Regulation,” available from Simmons-Boardman Books, 800-228-9670.
