(a) Each railroad's program shall include criteria and procedures for implementing this section.

(b) A railroad shall have procedures for monitoring the operational performance of those it has determined as qualified as a locomotive engineer in either train or locomotive service.

(c) The procedures shall:

(1) Be designed to determine that the person possesses and routinely employs the skills to safely operate locomotives and/or trains, including the proper application of the railroad's rules and practices for the safe operation of locomotives and trains;

(2) Be designed so that each engineer shall be monitored each calendar year by a Designated Supervisor of Locomotive Engineers, who does not need to be qualified on the physical characteristics of the territory over which the operational performance monitoring will be conducted;

(3) Be designed so that the locomotive engineer is either accompanied by the designated supervisor for a reasonable length of time or has his or her train handling activities electronically recorded by a train operations event recorder;

(d) The procedures may be designed so that the locomotive engineer being monitored either:

(i) Is at the controls of the type of train normally operated on that railroad or segment of railroad and which this person might be permitted or required by the railroad to operate in the normal course of events after certification or

(ii) Is at the controls of a Type I or Type II simulator programmed to replicate the responsive behavior of the type of train normally operated on that railroad or segment of railroad and which this person might be permitted or required by the railroad to operate in the normal course of events after certification.

(e) The testing and examination procedures selected by the railroad for the conduct of a monitoring program shall be:

(1) Designed so that each locomotive engineer shall be given at least one unannounced test each calendar year;

(2) Designed to test:

(i) Engineer compliance with provisions of the railroad's operating rules that require response to signals that display less than a “clear” aspect, if the railroad operates with a signal system that must comply with part 236 of this chapter;

(ii) Engineer compliance with provisions of the railroad's operating rules, timetable or other mandatory directives that require affirmative response by the locomotive engineer to less favorable conditions than that which existed prior to initiation of the test; or

(iii) Engineer compliance with provisions of the railroad's operating rules, timetable or other mandatory directives violation of which by engineers were cited by the railroad as the cause of train accidents or train incidents in accident reports filed in compliance with part 225 of this chapter in the preceding calendar year;

(3) Designed so that the administration of these tests is effectively distributed throughout whatever portion of a 24-hour day that the railroad conducts its operations; and

(4) Designed so that individual tests are administered without prior notice to the engineer being tested.

(f) Each railroad's program shall indicate the types of actions the railroad will take in the event that it finds deficiencies with a locomotive engineer's performance during an operational monitoring observation or unannounced compliance test administered in accordance with the procedures required under §240.303.

(g) Each railroad's program shall describe the scoring system used by the railroad during an operational monitoring observation or unannounced compliance test administered in accordance with the procedures required under §240.303.

[56 FR 28254, June 19, 1991, as amended at 64 FR 60992, Nov. 8, 1999; 74 FR 68183, Dec. 23, 2009]