BNSF Railway Company has petitioned FRA for a waiver of compliance regarding track inspections to be conducted visually by railroad track inspectors qualified under 49 CFR 213.7 at certain frequencies based on the class of track.
BNSF seeks to replace the visual track inspections with automated inspections that would be performed by Unmanned Automated Track Geometry Cars every 12 million gross tons, not to exceed four weeks between tests. Visual inspections would still be performed either twice per month, weekly, or three times per week, based on risk model calculations made weekly for each track segment.
Interested parties may submit comments on the petition until September 25, 2020. All comments must include the docket number.
