New Jersey Transit Corporation (NJ Transit) has announced that it has become the first passenger railroad to participate in the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA) “Close Call” Project, a safety pilot program designed to give rail employees the ability to voluntarily and anonymously report “close call” incidents that could have resulted in an accident but did not.

NJ Transit is the third railroad to join the program, after Canadian Pacific and Union Pacific.

FRA currently requires railroads to routinely report a wide range of accidents and incidents; however, routine reporting of “close calls” is not mandatory.

Researchers will use the cumulative results of close call reports to determine areas of potential risk and to develop solutions to prevent and minimize their occurrence in the future. According to FRA, preliminary analysis from the Union Pacific close call reporting project at its rail yard in North Platte, NE, already shows a significant reduction in human factor-related incidents.

Before participating in the pilot, NJ Transit, the United Transportation Union, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, and the American Train Dispatchers Association each ratified agreements with FRA to allow employees to make confidential reports of close calls.

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics is assisting FRA on this research effort.

More information on the program is available online. 

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