As used in this part only—

Accident/incident means an “accident/incident” as defined in §225.5 of this chapter.

Administrator means the Administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration or the Administrator's delegate.

Confidential Close Call Reporting System (C3RS) means an FRA-sponsored voluntary program designed to improve the safety of railroad operations by allowing railroad employees to confidentially report currently unreported or underreported unsafe events.

FRA means the Federal Railroad Administration.

FRA Associate Administrator means the Associate Administrator for Railroad Safety and Chief Safety Officer, Federal Railroad Administration, or the Associate Administrator's delegate.

Fully implemented means that all elements of an RRP as described in the RRP plan are established and applied to the safety management of the railroad.

Hazard means any real or potential condition that can cause injury, illness, or death; damage to or loss of a system, equipment, or property; or damage to the environment.

Inadequate safety performance means safety performance that FRA has determined to be inadequate based on the criteria described in §271.13.

Mitigation strategy means an action or program intended to reduce or eliminate the risk associated with a hazard.

Person means an entity of any type covered under 49 U.S.C. 21301, including, but not limited to, the following: A railroad; a manager, supervisor, official, or other employee or agent of a railroad; any owner, manufacturer, lessor, or lessee of railroad equipment, track, or facilities; any independent contractor or subcontractor providing goods or services to a railroad; any employee of such owner, manufacturer, lessor, lessee, or independent contractor or subcontractor.

Pilot project means a limited scope project used to determine whether quantitative evaluation and analysis suggests that a particular system or mitigation strategy has potential to succeed on a full-scale basis.

Plant railroad means a plant or installation that owns or leases a locomotive, uses that locomotive to switch cars throughout the plant or installation, and is moving goods solely for use in the facility's own industrial processes. The plant or installation could include track immediately adjacent to the plant or installation if the plant railroad leases the track from the general system railroad and the lease provides for (and actual practice entails) the exclusive use of that trackage by the plant railroad and the general system railroad for purposes of moving only cars shipped to or from the plant. A plant or installation that operates a locomotive to switch or move cars for other entities, even if solely within the confines of the plant or installation, rather than for its own purposes or industrial processes, is not considered a plant railroad because the performance of such activity makes the operation part of the general railroad system of transportation.

Positive train control system means a system designed to prevent train-to-train collisions, overspeed derailments, incursions into established work zone limits, and the movement of a train through a switch left in the wrong position, as described in subpart I of part 236 of this chapter.

Railroad means:

(1) Any form of non-highway ground transportation that runs on rails or electromagnetic guideways, including:

(i) Commuter or other short-haul rail passenger service in a metropolitan or suburban area and commuter railroad service that was operated by the Consolidated Rail Corporation on January 1, 1979; and

(ii) High speed ground transportation systems that connect metropolitan areas, without regard to whether those systems use new technologies not associated with traditional railroads, but does not include rapid transit operations in an urban area that are not connected to the general railroad system of transportation; and

(2) A person or organization that provides railroad transportation, whether directly or by contracting out operation of the railroad to another person.

Risk means the combination of the probability (or frequency of occurrence) and the consequence (or severity) of a hazard.

Risk-based HMP means a risk-based hazard management program (HMP).

Risk reduction means the formal, top-down, organization-wide approach to managing safety risk and assuring the effectiveness of safety risk mitigation strategies. It includes systematic procedures, practices, and policies for the management of safety risk.

RRP means a Risk Reduction Program.

RRP plan means a Risk Reduction Program plan.

Safety culture means the shared values, actions, and behaviors that demonstrate a commitment to safety over competing goals and demands.

Safety performance means a realized or actual safety accomplishment relative to stated safety objectives.

Safety outreach means the communication of safety information to support the implementation of an RRP throughout a railroad.

Senior management means personnel at the highest level of a railroad's management who are responsible for making major policy decisions and long-term business plans regarding the operation of the railroad.

STB means the Surface Transportation Board of the United States.

Tourist, scenic, historic, or excursion operations means railroad operations that carry passengers, often using antiquated equipment, with the conveyance of the passengers to a particular destination not being the principal purpose. Train movements of new passenger equipment for demonstration purposes are not tourist, scenic, historic, or excursion operations.

[85 FR 9314, Feb. 18, 2020, as amended at 85 FR 12852, Mar. 4, 2020]