H.R. 928 — Railway Safety Act of 2025

This section cites the Act as the “Railway Safety Act of 2025” and sets forth its table of contents.

This section directs the Secretary of Transportation to issue regulations, or modify existing regulations, within one year of enactment establishing safety requirements for shippers and rail carriers operating trains transporting hazardous materials not subject to high-hazard flammable train requirements under 49 CFR 174.310 (i.e., trains with enhanced safety rules for fuels such as crude oil). The regulations must require (1) advance notification to State and Tribal emergency response commissions, including a written gas discharge plan; and (2) measures to reduce or eliminate blocked crossings from train delays. In developing the regulations, the Secretary must also address train length and weight, train consist, route analysis and selection, speed restrictions, track standards, track-bridge-rail car maintenance, signaling and train control, response plans, and other necessary requirements. The Secretary may modify high-hazard flammable train safety requirements under 49 CFR 174.310 to satisfy this rulemaking, in whole or in part.

This section directs the Secretary of Transportation, within one year of enactment, to review and update rail car and locomotive inspection regulations (49 CFR chapters I and II, subtitle B) to establish minimum time requirements for qualified mechanical inspectors and to ensure all hazardous materials trains are inspected at Secretary-determined intervals. The section also requires the Secretary to immediately amend regulations on abbreviated pre-departure inspections (49 CFR 215.13(c)) for such trains. The section further requires the Secretary to initiate, within 60 days of enactment, audits of Federal rail car inspection programs under 49 CFR part 215 to assess compliance, training and performance metrics, inspector time adequacy, alignment with current practices, and overreliance on train crews—with Class I railroads audited at least every five years and select Class II and III railroads audited annually pursuant to the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996 and 49 CFR part 209, appendix C. Railroads must remedy audit-identified deficiencies after consulting employees and labor organizations, all parties must cooperate fully (with congressional notification for noncooperation), the Secretary must conduct triennial reviews of part 215, and the Secretary must publish annual reports summarizing audits and updates (excluding confidential or sensitive information). The section states that it does not limit pilot programs for automated rail inspection technologies or require waivers of existing inspection requirements.

This section directs the Secretary of Transportation to issue regulations within one year of enactment establishing requirements for the installation, repair, testing, maintenance, and operation of wayside defect detectors (i.e., trackside devices that monitor for train defects such as overheating wheel bearings) for rail carriers operating trains carrying hazardous materials. The regulations must address (1) detector placement frequency, including a requirement for all Class I railroads to install hotbox detectors along every 10-mile segment of track used by such trains; (2) performance standards; (3) maintenance and repair; (4) data and record reporting; (5) rail carrier responses to defect alerts; and (6) hotbox detector use to prevent wheel bearing derailments, including Secretary-specified alert temperatures and required carrier actions. The regulations must also specify defect categories to be addressed, including axles, wheel bearings, brakes, signals, wheel impacts, and others designated by the Secretary.

This section, the Safe Freight Act of 2025, establishes freight train crew size safety standards in new 49 U.S.C. §20154 requiring a two-person crew—at least one appropriately qualified and certified conductor and one appropriately qualified and certified locomotive engineer—for freight train operations. The two-person crew requirement does not apply to (1) operations on non-main line track; (2) trains operated by railroads with fewer than 400,000 annual employee work hours and less than $40 million in annual revenue (inflation-adjusted), at speeds not exceeding 25 miles per hour, and on track segments of at least two continuous miles with average grades below 2 percent; (3) locomotives providing assistance for mechanical failures or insufficient power; (4) locomotives not attached to equipment (or attached only to a caboose) traveling no farther than 30 miles from origin; or (5) pre-existing one-person crew operations determined by the Secretary of Transportation to achieve equivalent safety. These exceptions do not apply to trains transporting material toxic by inhalation, 20 or more loaded tank cars of Class 2 material or Class 3 flammable liquid in a continuous block (or 35 or more throughout the consist), or trains at least 7,500 feet long. Railroad carriers may seek waivers under 49 U.S.C. §20103.

This section increases maximum civil penalties for rail safety violations under title 49, U.S. Code, as follows: (1) for transporting hazardous materials under 49 U.S.C. §5123(a), to the greater of 0.5% of the violator's annual income or operating income, as applicable, or $750,000 (from $75,000) for a general violation, and to the greater of 1% or $1,750,000 (from $175,000) for a pattern of violations; (2) for general violations of chapter 201 under §21301(a)(2), to the greater of 0.5% or $250,000 (from $25,000) generally and to the greater of 1% or $1,000,000 (from $100,000) for a pattern of violations; (3) for accident or incident violations of chapter 201 or violations of chapters 203 through 209 under §21302(a)(2), to the greater of 0.5% or $250,000 (from $25,000) generally and to the greater of 1% or $1,000,000 (from $100,000) for a pattern of violations; and (4) for violations of chapter 211 (hours of service) under §21303(a)(2), to the greater of 0.5% or $250,000 (from $25,000) generally and to the greater of 1% or $1,000,000 (from $100,000) for a pattern of violations. (Thus, penalties now scale with violator size while establishing higher minimums than prior fixed amounts.)

This section prohibits rail carriers from using DOT-111 specification railroad tank cars that do not comply with DOT-117, DOT-117P, or DOT-117R specifications to transport Class 3 flammable liquids (i.e., ethanol, gasoline, and similar substances) beginning May 1, 2027—regardless of train consist—notwithstanding the phase-out schedule in section 7304 of the FAST Act (49 U.S.C. 20155 note). It further directs the Secretary of Transportation to remove or revise inconsistent date-specific regulatory deadlines and prohibits enforcement thereof, with no requirement for new regulations.

This section establishes an additional annual fee of $1 million on each Class I rail carrier (i.e., largest freight railroads) under the hazardous materials registration fee program and directs use of those funds (plus recoveries from prior grants) to support grants for training local first responders to handle hazardous materials incidents (expanded from hazardous liquids only). The section also doubles annual funding for supplemental hazardous materials training grants to $4 million (from $2 million).

This section amends the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) program by adding as an eligible activity projects to expand the use and effectiveness of wayside defect detectors (i.e., automated trackside systems that detect wheel and equipment defects) to better prevent derailments of trains transporting hazardous materials. It authorizes $22 million for such projects.

This section directs the Administrator of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to study technologies available to develop stronger, safer tank cars and valves and other tank car safety features and to submit a report to Congress. The section authorizes $5 million for this purpose.

This section directs the Secretary of Transportation to submit to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation a report on progress implementing the recommendations in chapter 4 of the National Transportation Safety Board's June 25, 2024, report titled “Norfolk Southern Railway Derailment and Hazardous Materials Release” (NTSB/RIR–24–05)—which investigated the February 2023 East Palestine, Ohio, rail derailment and hazardous materials release—not later than two years after enactment of this Act and every two years thereafter.