Railway Safety Act of 2025
Railway Safety Act of 2025 would significantly tighten safety requirements for trains carrying hazardous materials. The bill directs the Secretary of Transportation to issue new safety regulations within a year, covering train operation, equipment, route analysis, speed, track standards, and emergency-response planning. It expands requirements for advance notification to state and tribal emergency responders, adds a written gas discharge plan, and aims to reduce train delays that cause crossing blockages. It also strengthens rail car inspections, mandates defect-detection technology (including hotbox and other defect detectors), imposes a federally supervised 2-person crew standard with various carve-outs, and accelerates the replacement of older tank cars. The act includes higher civil penalties for violations, funds for first-responder training and safety infrastructure, and requires regular reporting on implementing recommendations from a 2024 NTSB derailment investigation. In short, the bill seeks to prevent hazmat incidents, improve emergency response, ensure safer equipment, and raise accountability and penalties for safety violations, with several timelines and funding provisions to support these aims.
Key Points
- 1Safety rulemaking and hazmat coordination for non-high-hazard-train hazmat movements: Within 1 year, the Secretary must establish safety requirements for trains carrying hazardous materials that aren’t already governed by high-hazard train rules. Requirements include advance state/tribal emergency response notifications, a written gas discharge plan, and measures to reduce blocked crossings; regulations may cover train length/weight, routing, speed, track and bridge standards, signaling, maintenance, and response plans.
- 2Rail car inspections and pre-departure checks: The Secretary must update inspection regulations to set minimum time for qualified inspectors and ensure hazmat cars are inspected at intervals determined by the agency. An abbreviated pre-departure inspection for hazmat trains will be allowed with specified revisions. The Act also mandates audits of federal inspection programs (Class I annually every 5 years; some smaller railroads annually) and requires program improvements if deficiencies are found, plus an annual public report.
- 3Defect detectors and wayside monitoring: The Secretary must establish requirements for installing and maintaining defect detectors (including hotbox detectors that monitor wheel bearing temperature) on hazmat routes, with specific placement standards (e.g., hotbox detectors every 10 miles). Detectors must have clear performance, maintenance, and data/record-keeping requirements, and outline steps rail carriers must take when detectors raise alerts.
- 4Freight train crew size safety standards (Safe Freight Act): No freight train may operate without a two-person crew (one conductor and one locomotive engineer) except in a set of enumerated carve-outs (e.g., non-mainline track, very small carriers with limited annual hours/revenue, slow-speed operations under certain track grades, locomotives providing assistance, or specific pre-enactment staffing levels if found to be as safe). There are additional ineligibility criteria for certain dangerous configurations (e.g., trains carrying toxic-by-inhalation materials, large blocks of hazardous tank cars, or very long trains). A waiver process is included.
- 5Safer tank cars and funding for training and safety programs: The bill phases out older DOT-111 tank cars for transporting Class 3 flammable liquids unless they comply with newer DOT-117-based standards, with a phase-in starting May 1, 2027. It also expands related regulatory flexibility and directs funding for related safety improvements. The bill imposes new and higher penalties for safety violations and expands funding for hazardous materials training and local emergency response, including a new annual fee for Class I rail carriers and increased grant and training funding.
- 6Tank car study and implementation reporting: PHMSA would study stronger, safer tank cars and valves, with a dedicated funding amount. And the Secretary would report every two years on progress implementing recommendations from a 2024 NTSB derailment report, with progress updates submitted to Congress.