The National Transportation Safety Board, in coordination with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, on Jan. 23, 2014 issued a series of recommendations to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), both of which are part of the U.S. Department of Transportation, to address the safety risks of crude by rail (CBR). The recommendations are not unusual or groundbreaking; that NTSB and TSB have issued them jointly is indicative of increased cooperation among U.S. and Canadian regulatory bodies regarding CBR.

A sell-off of shares in companies engaged in extracting oil from the mid-continent Bakken formation was the first indication from investors that they expect government scrutiny of the potentially explosive crude will disrupt crude-by-rail (CBR) and escalate its costs.

Canada’s government has ordered Transport Canada to crack down hard on crude oil shippers who they say continue to evade a directive that they test the contents of tank cars before classifying them as hazardous materials for crude by rail (CBR) transportation.

The Federal Railroad Administration will launch a 60-day comprehensive safety assessment of MTA Metro-North Railroad in response to the December 1st crash that killed four and injured 63. Operation Deep Dive, beginning Dec. 16, 2013, “will exhaustively review Metro-North’s compliance with federal regulations, its procedures and practices, and its safety culture,” FRA said.

The Federal Railroad Administration on Dec. 11, 2013 issued an industry-wide Safety Advisory (2013-08) “to help ensure railroads adhere to federal regulations regarding maximum authorized train speed limits.”

In the wake of the Dec. 1, 2013 wreck of an MTA Metro-North Railroad train that was apparently caused by an overspeed condition and that resulted in four deaths and 63 injuries, the Federal Railroad Administration on Friday, Dec. 6 issued an Emergency Order (EO 29) to Metro-North “to take specific, immediate steps to ensure its train crews do not exceed speed limitations.”

Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph C. Szabo accepted Railway Age’s W. Graham Claytor Award for Distinguished Service to Passenger Transportation at the 20th Annual Passenger Trains on Freight Railroads Conference in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 16, 2013.

The Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) and the Federal Railroad Administration are conducting a safety review of crude-by-rail shipments originating in the Bakken Shale formation, specifically within North Dakota and South Dakota.

The Federal Railroad Administration has issued a Request For Proposals (RFP) for 35 high-performance diesel-electric locomotives built to standardized technical specifications developed by the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act (PRIIA) Section 305 Next Generation Corridor Equipment Pool Committee.