§1167 Railroad Security Training Program

Summary

The Secretary must create rules no later than 6 months after August 3, 2007, for a security training program to prepare railroad frontline employees for possible threats. The Secretary must work with law enforcement, fire and emergency experts, security and terrorism experts, railroad companies, shippers, and employee unions. The rules must require programs to cover at least 12 kinds of training, such as how to judge how serious a threat is, crew and passenger communication, self‑defense and protective gear use, evacuation (including for people with disabilities and the elderly), how terrorists think and behave, psychological reactions to incidents, live drills (including tunnel evacuations), spotting and reporting dangerous substances or suspicious packages, incident procedures and working with emergency responders, how to use and maintain security equipment, and other things the Secretary finds appropriate. After the rules are issued, each railroad carrier must write and send a training program to the Secretary within 90 days. The Secretary has 60 days to approve it or ask for changes; carriers must reply to those comments within 30 days. Once approved, carriers must finish training all frontline employees within 1 year for workers hired more than 30 days before approval, and must train employees hired less than 30 days before approval within their first 60 days on the job. The Secretary will review and update the rules as threats change, and carriers must update their programs and retrain employees within a reasonable time. The training must be part of the National Training Program under section 748. Within 2 years after the rules are issued, the Secretary will review a sample of carriers and employees and report the results to Congress; the report may be submitted in classified or redacted form. The Secretary must also issue guidance and best practices for shipper employee security programs that include the same elements.