19. Department of Transportation · Notable
Drop FRA's planned emergency escape breathing apparatus requirement
Printed page 637 19. Department of Transportation
“FRA is planning to propose emergency escape breathing apparatus requirements for train crews even though FRA staff long ago concluded that the costs of these requirements would far outweigh their very minimal benefits.”
What has happened
- Attempted
FRA relieved the requirement without dropping it. Answering a joint AAR and ASLRRA petition for reconsideration and its own investigation into supply, FRA first exercised enforcement discretion twice - 60 days from 2025-01-29 in the spirit of the Regulatory Freeze Pending Review memorandum, and a further 60 days from 2025-05-27 - and then, by final rule effective 2025-08-07, delayed the compliance dates in 49 CFR 227.217 by 12 months for all railroads. FRA said the action does not preclude granting additional relief and that a full response to ASLRRA's separate petition for a de minimis exception is forthcoming. The requirement itself stands, and it is mandated by section 413 of the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008, 49 U.S.C. 20166, so FRA cannot simply drop it.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
- Boundary call, raised in the spot-check register: not started is defensible because a compliance-date extension granted on supply-chain feasibility grounds is a delay, not a step toward withdrawal, and FRA reopened none of the rule’s substance. It is recorded as attempted because the record is a sequence of deliberate relief actions by this administration - two rounds of enforcement discretion and then a 12-month delay - with a further relief petition expressly left open.
- Read the operative text at https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2025-08-07/html/2025-15022.htm . Federal Register full-text, quoted, for “emergency escape breathing apparatus” since 2025-01-20 returns this one document, so no later action had been taken as of 2026-09-01.
- Action
- withdraw
- Object
- FRA emergency escape breathing apparatus rulemaking
- ID
- 1754