# 2026-15847: Rail Crash Payout Cap Jumps to $402 Million Exactly

2026-15847, Rail Passenger Liability Cap Adjustment as Required by Section 11415 of the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act, is a Federal Register notice from Transportation Department, Transportation Department published 2026-08-05, effective 2026-09-04; PRIA reads it as touching household money (as of 2026-08-12).

- Canonical: https://policyrisk.com/federal-register/2026-15847
- As of: 2026-08-12
- Plain-text twin of the page above; the HTML and this file carry the same facts.

## Facts
- Document number: 2026-15847
- Title: Rail Passenger Liability Cap Adjustment as Required by Section 11415 of the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act
- Type: Notice
- Agencies: Transportation Department; Transportation Department
- Citation: 91 FR 50601
- Published: 2026-08-05
- Effective: 2026-09-04
- Comments close: not stated
- Significant: no
- Touches household money: yes
- Regulation identifier numbers: none
- Last updated: 2026-08-12

## In one line

Rail Crash Payout Cap Jumps to $402 Million Exactly

## Summary

This notice details the adjustment made to the rail passenger transportation liability cap as required by section 11415(b) of the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act (December 4, 2015). Pursuant to the FAST Act, the rail passenger transportation liability cap is raised from $322,864,228 to $401,900,000.

## Effects PRIA read

- Rail passenger liability cap raised: benefit, high. If you are a rail passenger injured in a single accident, the total amount that all passengers can recover together (including punitive damages) has been raised from $322,864,228 to $401,900,000. This new cap becomes effective September 4, 2026.
- Cap tied to CPI-U and five-year updates: benefit, low. The Department used the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) to adjust the cap from the December 1997 base ($200,000,000) using the December 1997 index (161.300) and the November 2025 index (324.122), and rounded the result to the nearest hundred thousand.…

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## Sources
- [2026-15847 on federalregister.gov](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/08/05/2026-15847/rail-passenger-liability-cap-adjustment-as-required-by-section-11415-of-the-fixing-americas-surface)
- [2026-15847 as published (PDF)](https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2026-08-05/pdf/2026-15847.pdf)

## Related
- [Previous: 2026-15846, Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission for Office of Management a…](https://policyrisk.com/federal-register/2026-15846)
- [Next: 2026-15848, Proposed Information Collection Activity; Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR)…](https://policyrisk.com/federal-register/2026-15848)
- [All Federal Register documents](https://policyrisk.com/federal-register)

Source: PRIA, https://policyrisk.com/federal-register/2026-15847 (as of 2026-08-12).