Freight trains will need to have at least two crew members on board, under a final rule the Federal Railroad Administration adopted Tuesday.

The Train Crew Size Safety Requirement comes a little more than a year after 38 freight cars carrying hazardous materials derailed in East Palestine, Ohio.

What You Need To Know

  • The Federal Railroad Administration finalized a rule on Tuesday that mandates freight trains have two crew members on board

  • The Train Crew Size Safety Requirement comes a little more than a year after 38 freight cars carrying hazardous materials derailed in East Palestine, Ohio

  • Since February 2023, more than 1,500 trains have derailed in the United States

  • Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called on Congress to pass the Railway Safety Act, which would require rail shippers to provide advance notice about hazardous materials, reduce blocked rail crossings, phase in safer rail cars and comply with speed restrictions

“This is a good day for the safety of rail workers, rail passengers and every American who lives near a rail line all across this country because America’s rails are safer today than they were yesterday,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said at an event announcing the final rule.

Under the new rule, all freight trains must have a second crew member to help perform safety functions such as securing a train with handbrakes, handling track switches that are not remotely controlled, obtaining track authorities and assisting in emergencies. Railroads will only be allowed to operate trains with one crew member if they request special approval and can prove a train with one crew is safe.

Before being adopted, the DOT considered 13,000 comments, 99% of which were in favor of the rule, Buttigieg said.

Since the Norfolk Southern derailment in Ohio last February, there have been more than 1,500 other train derailments, many of them carrying hazardous materials. Last year, there were seven rail-related employee-on-duty deaths and 46 employee-on-duty major injuries across all railroads, Buttigieg said.

“We know that rail workers are safest when they are not stretched too thin,” Buttigieg said. “We know that a big part of ensuring safety is ensuring there is enough staff on board to safely operate the train and respond when something happens.”

The Association of American Railroads, however, derided the FRA's new requirement. In a statement, AAR President and CEO Ian Jefferies said the agency “is doubling down on an unfounded and unncecessary regulation that has no proven connection to rail safety."

The AAR said there is “lack of evidence connecting crew size to rail safety” and that the FRA abandoned a similar rule in 2019. The train derailment in East Palestine had three crew members on board.

“Instead of prioritizing data-backed solutions to build a safer future for rail, FRA is looking to the past and upending the collective bargaining process," Jefferies said.

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, a Teamsters union with 51,500 members, “has been working on protecting and mandating crew size for 13 years,” the group’s president, Edward A. Hall, said during Tuesday’s event. “Safety improvements have come too slowly to the railroads.”

He praised the new Train Crew Size Safety Requirement for “making the railroad safer for everyone.”

Hall joined Buttigieg in calling on Congress to pass the Railway Safety Act Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, introduced last year following the derailment in East Palestine. The bill would require rail shippers to provide advance notice about hazardous materials, reduce blocked rail crossings, phase in safer rail cars and comply with speed restrictions. It would also increase fines for railroads’ safety violations.

Since its introduction last March, that bill has stalled.