GAO: Rail safety framework sound, but more inspections needed

GAO: Rail safety framework sound, but more inspections needed The U.S. Government Accountability Office said Friday that the Federal Railroad Administration needs to improve the assessment of its safety oversight plan, but lauded the FRA for establishing a framework for rail safety.
   With 'the overall strategy for targeting its oversight at the greatest risks, FRA provides a reasonable framework for guiding these efforts,' the GAO report said. 'Its initiatives to address the most common causes of accidents are promising, although the success of many of them will depend on voluntary actions by the railroads.'
   The report added, however, that a small fraction of railroad operation inspections actually occur.
   'In carrying out its safety oversight, FRA identifies a range of specific and broad-scale safety problems on railroad systems mainly by determining whether operating practices, track and equipment are in compliance with minimum safety standards,' the report said. 'However, FRA is able to inspect only about 0.2 percent of railroads' operations each year, and its inspections do not examine how railroads are managing safety risks throughout their systems that could lead to accidents. Such an approach, as a supplement to traditional compliance inspections, is used in the oversight of U.S. commuter railroads and pipelines and of Canadian railroads. While this type of approach can provide additional assurance of safety, GAO is not recommending that FRA adopt it because its various initiatives to reduce the train accident rate have not yet had time to demonstrate their effects on safety.'