Passenger Car Emergency Preparedness Features
December 13, 2004
The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) issues
Passenger Rail Equipment Safety Standards (PRESS) Technical Bulletins to inform
participants in the PRESS program of safety issues or impending Federal Railroad
Administration (FRA) regulatory actions.
This technical bulletin informs PRESS participants of an impending regulatory
action covering emergency lighting, emergency signs and low level exit path
marking systems on passenger cars. This technical bulletin summarizes the
impact and timing of this regulatory action and gives guidance on how to prepare
for it.
More than a year ago, the Federal Railroad administration (FRA) convened
a Rail Safety Advisory Committee (RSAC) Working Group on passenger safety.
This Working Group is organized into several Task Forces. One of these Task
Forces is working on rulemaking recommendations to FRA on passenger car emergency
features.
This Task Force will make a recommendation to FRA for FRA to incorporate
into Federal regulations by reference the following three APTA PRESS Standards:
APTA SS-E-013-99, Standard for Emergency Lighting System Design for Passenger
Cars
APTA SS-PS-002-98, Rev. 2, Standard for Emergency Signage for Egress/Access
of Passenger Rail Equipment.
APTA SS-PS-004-99, Rev. 1, Standard for Low-Location Exit Path Marking
These three standards have been in effect for almost five years. If your
organization
has implemented them and is making a good faith effort to comply with them,
this rulemaking will not have much of an impact.
However, APTA does not enforce standards. Compliance is voluntary. This action
by FRA will give compliance the force of law. As a result, APTA will summarize
the actions your organizations should take and their timing to be prepared
when FRA implements this rule:
-
Immediately discontinue installation of zinc sulfide interior emergency
signs in your equipment. Eight years ago, when the safety value of emergency
signs that store and release light was first general recognized by our industry,
zinc sulfide was the best technology available. Many first to take action
railroads invested in zinc sulfide signs. Soon after, a much better technology
using High Performance Photoluminescent (HPPL) material became available.
The graph attached as figure 1 compares the performance of zinc sulfide
signs to HPPL signs. Zinc sulfide signs do not comply with the APTA standard.
However, so as not to penalize the railroads that acted early, APTA grandfathered
installations and stocks of zinc sulfide signs existing at the time the
APTA standard became effective. FRA believes that after eight years, early
acting railroads have received most of the benefit of their investment in
zinc sulfide signs. FRA will not grand father the use of existing installations
and stocks of zinc sulfide signs.
-
Immediately discard any remaining stocks of zinc sulfide signs not installed
on your equipment.
-
Check your equipment to determine if any zinc sulfide signs remain in
use. Replace any zinc sulfide signs with HPPL signs by January 1, 2007.
If you have difficulty determining if zinc sulfide signs have been installed,
contact Tom Peacock (202 496-4805 or tpeacock@apta.com).
-
Check your emergency lighting levels to determine that they comply with
APTA SS-E-013-99, Standard for Emergency Lighting System Design for Passenger
Cars. This standard took effect January 1, 2000. Three months after taking
effect, railroads were to test emergency lighting for compliance. Find this
data. If you do not have it, consider repeating the tests. When the rule
takes effect, FRA may come looking for this data. Either remedial action
or a waiver may be required for cars that do not meet the existing equipment
levels specified in this APTA standard. APTA estimates that FRA will need
a minimum of 18 months to get a final rule in place.
-
Complete installation of Low-Location Exit Path Marking Systems on your
equipment by January 1, 2006. This is the installation required in APTA
SS-PS-004-99, Rev. 1, Standard for Low-Location Exit Path Marking.
Copies of these three APTA Standards can be found on the CD ROM distributed
to all passenger railroads in June 2004. The standards can also be downloaded
from APTA's web site, www.apta.com. APTA is working with the FRA to make changes,
largely editorial, to make these standards easier to incorporate by reference.
When completed, APTA will distribute the proposed to the PRESS Task Force
for a re-vote.
