§20160 National Crossing Inventory

Summary

Railroad carriers must send up-to-date information to the Secretary of Transportation about every railroad crossing they use. For crossings never reported before, carriers must report no later than 1 year after the date of enactment of the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 or within 6 months after a new crossing starts operating, whichever is later. After that, carriers must report updates starting not later than 2 years after the date of enactment and then on or before September 30 of each year (or at other times the Secretary sets). Carriers can either report the information themselves or make sure another carrier that uses the crossing reports it. If a carrier sells a crossing on or after the date of enactment, it must report the ownership change no later than 18 months after the date of enactment or 3 months after the sale, whichever is later (or as the Secretary specifies). The Secretary of Transportation will write the rules needed to carry out these requirements and may keep enforcing the Department of Transportation’s current national crossing inventory policy until new rules replace it. Definitions: “crossing” — a place where a public or private road, or an authorized nonvehicular path, crosses one or more railroad tracks; “State” — a State of the United States, the District of Columbia, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.