Data / Federal rules / 2025-12192
Repealing Special Approval Requirement for Freight Cars More Than 50 Years Old
The Federal Railroad Administration published this proposed rule in the Federal Register on July 1, 2025. Comments closed on September 2, 2025.
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What the agency says
FRA proposes to amend its freight car safety regulations to repeal the requirement for special approval to place or continue a freight car in service if it is more than 50 years old or equipped with any design or type component listed in appendix A to this part. Instead, railroads would be able to continue or place such "overage" cars in service after complying with uniform safety requirements. Those requirements would include comprehensive shop inspections by a designated inspector, single-car air brake testing, recordkeeping, and, as appropriate, stenciling. The proposed requirements are consistent with the most important conditions that FRA now requires through the existing special approval process. Repealing the special approval process and replacing it with the proposed, uniform requirements would provide equivalent safety outcomes while reducing burdens on railroads and eliminating the added delay involved in petitioning FRA for a special approval.
Key facts
- Document number
- 2025-12192
- Type
- Proposed rule
- Action
- Notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM)
- Agency
- Transportation Department; Federal Railroad Administration
- Published
- July 1, 2025
- Comments due
- September 2, 2025
- Dates
- Comments on the proposed rule must be received by September 2, 2025. FRA may consider comments received after that date, but only to the extent practicable.
- Docket
- Docket No. FRA-2025-0117
- Regulation ID (RIN)
- 2130-AD46
- Code of Federal Regulations
- 49 CFR 215
- Topics
- Freight; Penalties; Railroad safety; Reporting and recordkeeping requirements
- Pages
- 4
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Everything from the Federal Railroad Administration · Rules on freight · Rules on penalties · Rules on railroad safety · Published in July 2025
Read from the Federal Register API, last updated 2026-10-23. The document on federalregister.gov is the official record; dates and dockets can change through later corrections. Free to reuse with credit to SpecStream under CC BY 4.0.