I am new to your forum and have enjoyed a brief education on train opreations this morning in reading older posts. I am about to buy land adjacent to a CSX line that runs South out of Tilford yard in ATL. I would like to understand safety regulations that exists for operators in Metro areas. Governed by Fed, state, local? Can you point me to a website that governs safety for Atlanta? Also, is there a site where I can see stats on track usage? Speed? frequency? Etc? Finally, any further thoughts on the implications on the Tilford Yard Hump CLosure? I assume it means less traffic on the line comming in and out?
I have talked to local and state officals and they are clueless on the tracks in our city. Spoke to someone at Federal Railroad Administration and they were slightly more helpful but were unwilling to share any information with me.
Surely, someone on this blog can layout some basics for me so I can get to know who my neighbor is?
keep doing your legwork! Just because Tilford is currently closed as a Hump Yard does not mean that it will continue to be closed forever. Rail traffic has peaks and valleys, if not system wide then regionally - some regions and their traffic grow, other regions and their traffic receed. You are wanting to out think the World - no body has.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Thanks. That makes sense. I will shift my reserach away from Hump Yard Closure.
The answers to some of your questions can be found in the FRA website. There are many types of safety regulations there - track safety standards are Part 213 of Title 49 of the CFR, for one - see: https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/granule/CFR-2011-title49-vol4/CFR-2011-title49-vol4-part213 However, rules for train operation are largely set by each railroad and generally are not readily available to the public. There are also federal rules for the transport of haz-mats, buit they're complicated and I'm not real familiar with them - others here are.
As to train speeds and frequency, the FRA database for grade crossings has that info, although sometimes outdated. Find a crossing nearby and look for the 6-character USDOT Grade Crossing ID code. Plug that into the database search form and it should yield the info you're looking for. Or, find one from its geographic location, and go from there. Here are directions on using the Grade Crossing Inventory data:
https://www.fra.dot.gov/eLib/Details/L02775
- PDN.
(1) I sincerely hope, that IF you are serious, you bring in a qualified attorney, surveyor and civil engineer with railroad experience/ qualifications in that part of the country. The Do-It-Yourselfers get killed in these kinds of endeavors - and look pretty stupid in the courts while they are at it. The amateurs can unwittingly stop a project before it starts, wasting huge chunks of money in the process. The misfortune gets multiplied by local government officials trying to play god when they have no legal right to do so.
(2) With item (1) in mind, your initial question posed is somewhat vague. Please mind what Balt and PDN are telling you - especially the part saying that CSX can pretty much do as it pleases with operation of the intermodal and freight yard. If the locals start whining too much, out comes the federal exemption to hit the locals over the head with if they don't behave in a civil manor. That being said, Georgia DOT's Rail Section* covers crossing and clearance regulation in the state by MOU/MOA with FRA and STB. If the state uses safety inspectors, they are monitored and and trained by FRA. The rest is pretty much controlled by FRA and STB until you get off the railroad operating property. Railroads guard the federal exemption jealously and try to use it rarely. - but sometimes they have little choice dealing with local grandstanding politicians who just don't get it.
(*) Used to be the GA Public Service Commission and the Railroad Commission before that. Leaving "bus people" in regulatory charge is dangerous as Washington state is now finding out. Railroads try to work with local jurisdictions, but there are plenty of laws out there passed by the locals that are absolutely un-enforcible because federal rule trumps local and state rule (for good reason, the effects on interstate commerce). If you want to see what happens, search the STB website where you will see plenty of dockets where local government falls on their own sword.
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