Washington — Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy recently addressed some lawmakers’ concerns about the Association of American Railroads seeking “relief from certain regulations concerning track inspections.”
Duffy responded to questioning from Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV) during a July 16 House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing addressing the Department of Transportation’s fiscal year 2026 budget request.
On June 17, Titus and Rep. Rick Larsen (D-WA), ranking member of the committee, wrote a letter to Duffy expressing apprehension about a recent AAR petition to the Federal Railroad Administration. Among the association’s requests:
- Reduce the interval of visual track safety inspections – now twice a week – to twice a month
- Allow three days before addressing known track defects
- Modernize track inspection regulations “to facilitate the use of proven technology that offers enhanced safety benefits”
“We do not believe that fewer visual inspections or waiting three days to address known problems is in the public interest nor is it consistent with railroad safety,” Titus and Larsen wrote.
In a July 10 letter to FRA deputy administrator Drew Feeley, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, and 11 other Democratic senators request that the petition be denied. The group contends that integrating automated track inspection technology on railroads could compromise safety.
“The waiver does not explain how reducing railroads’ obligation to check for the track issues that ATI technology cannot detect by up to 75% will reduce derailments,” the letter states.
Titus, who chairs the House Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee, cited similar data during the House hearing. She said that although she agrees “technology is helpful, too,” she would “hate to see us trade that [human] expertise for something that’s kind of trendy.”
In the letter, the senators call on FRA to “take care not to allow railroads to become overly reliant on technology.”
Duffy shared his position on inspection technology in response to questioning from Titus.
“I look at automated track inspection and driving safety and what can be gleaned from this technology versus the human eye,” he said. “I think there’s potentially a real differential. I am concerned about the employment side within the rail industry as well.
“But I think there’s a lot of technology – whether we’re seeing cracks in tracks or we’re seeing overheated bearings or we’re seeing issues on wheels – I think these cameras and technology can advance us light-years in driving the safety and preventing early some of these derailments that, as we know, are catastrophic.”
