Safe Freight Act of 2024

Subchapter II of chapter 201 of title 49, United States Code, is amended by inserting after section 20153 the following:

Except as provided in subsection (b), no Class I railroad carrier may operate a freight train without a 2-person crew consisting of at least 1 appropriately qualified and certified conductor and 1 appropriately qualified and certified locomotive engineer.

Except as provided in paragraph (2), the requirement under subsection (a) shall not apply with respect to—

(A) train operations on track that is not main line track;

(B) locomotives performing assistance to a train that has incurred mechanical failure or lacks the power to traverse difficult terrain, including traveling to or from the location where assistance is provided;

(C) locomotives that—

(i) are not attached to any equipment or are attached only to a caboose; and

(ii) travel not farther than 50 miles from the point of origin of such locomotive; and

(D) train operations staffed with fewer than a 2-person crew at least 1 year before the date of the enactment of the Safe Freight Act of 2024, except if the Secretary determines that such operations do not achieve an equivalent level of safety as would result from compliance with the requirement under subsection (a).

The exceptions under paragraph (2) shall not apply with respect to—

(A) a high-hazard train; or

(B) a train with a total length of at least 7,500 feet.

A railroad carrier may seek a waiver of the requirements under subsection (a) in accordance with section 20103(d).

In this section:

The term high-hazard train means a single train transporting, throughout the train consist—

(A) not fewer than 20 tank cars loaded with a flammable liquid (Class 3) (as such term is defined in section 173.120 of title 49, Code of Federal Regulations, or successor regulations);

(B) not fewer than 1 tank car or intermodal portable tank load with a material poisonous by inhalation or a material toxic by inhalation (as such term is defined in section 171.8 of title 49, Code of Federal Regulations, or successor regulations);

(C) not fewer than 1 car loaded with a type B package or a fissile material package (as such terms are defined in section 173.403 of title 49, Code of Federal Regulations, or successor regulations);

(D) not fewer than 10 cars loaded with Class 1 explosives categorized under section 173.50 of title 49, Code of Federal Regulations (or successor regulations) as being in division 1.1, 1.2, or 1.3;

(E) not fewer than 5 tank cars loaded with a flammable gas (as such term is defined in section 173.115(a) of title 49, Code of Federal Regulations, or successor regulations); or

(F) not fewer than 20 cars loaded with any combination of flammable liquids, flammable gases, or explosives.

The term main line track means—

(A) a segment or route of railroad tracks—

(i) over which 5,000,000 or more gross tons of railroad traffic is transported annually; and

(ii) that has a maximum authorized speed for freight trains in excess of 25 miles per hours; and

(B) intercity rail passenger transportation or commuter rail passenger transportation routes or segments over which high-hazard trains operate.

The analysis for subchapter II of chapter 201 of title 49, United States Code, is amended by inserting after the item relating to section 20153 the following:

Nothing in section 20154 of title 49, United States Code, as added by this section, shall be construed to limit the authority of the Secretary of Transportation under any other provision of law.