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[quote user="edblysard"]The FRA doesn't make laws... They do make policy recommendations and legal suggestions. They are charged with enforcing the laws and each railroads own rules. The Legislature makes the laws, and once it becomes law, the FRA has to enforce it, no matter if it makes sense or not. [/quote] Ed, I understand your point about the distinction of the role of the lawmakers as opposed to the role of the FRA, but are they not sort or joined at the hip?  You have the public sector FRA, which wants to grow larger, teemed up with the public sector lawmakers who can impose mandates on private industry.  Those mandates will grow the FRA.  For example, how much larger will the FRA become if it is to administer the implementation and regulation of PTC? <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p> Although the FRA cannot mandate anything until it is made into law, doesn’t the FRA have a hand in promoting an idea to be made into law?  They spend money developing safety measures such as PTC, ECP brakes, remote coupling and uncoupling, and freight car side reflectors before any laws are made that require these safety improvements. Surely this development of safety ideas must boost the chances of getting congress to make laws that require them.   <o:p></o:p> Will the government soon mandate that all couplers be Type-F ? <o:p></o:p> Aside from the influence of the FRA, does the legislature get stampeded into mandating these safety improvements by the private special interests that will benefit financially from a massive program such as the implementation of PTC?  It seems as if the improvement of safety is a sort of "magic bullet" that can overcome any opposition from the ones who have to pay for it, and thus work to the benefit of those who will profit off of producing the improvement. <o:p></o:p> Today PTC is one obvious example of this.  But there are other items in the pipeline such as ECP brakes, and remote coupling and uncoupling.  These ideas are not new.  They have been around a long time.  As public pressure for safety was applied over time, the industry adapted safety measures according to their cost/benefit.      However, it seems that what has changed today is that the public pressure component has become very sophisticated and is now capable of taking away the railroad companies’ prerogative on what improvements are worth the cost and which are not.
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