Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 122.djvu/4888

 12 2 STA T .4865PUBLIC LA W 11 0– 4 3 2 —O CT. 16 , 2008 ar a il r o a d’su s e o fn e w or no v el t e ch nolo gy intended to reduce or eli m inate human error , the variations in freight and p assenger railroad scheduling practices and operating conditions, the vari - ations in duties and operating conditions for employees su bj ect to this chapter, a railroad’s re q uired or voluntary use of fatigue management plans covering employees subject to this chapter, and any other relevant factors .‘ ‘ ( d )TIMEL IMI TS . — ‘‘( 1 ) I f the S ecretary determines that regulations are nec- essary under subsection (a), the Secretary shall first request that the R ailroad Safety A dvisory C ommittee develop proposed regulations and, if the Committee accepts the tas k , provide the Committee with a reasonable time period in which to com- plete the task. ‘‘( 2 ) If the Secretary requests that the Railroad Safety Advisory Committee accept the task of developing regulations under subsection (b) and the Committee accepts the task, the Committee shall reach consensus on the rulemaking within 1 8 months after accepting the task. If the Committee does not reach consensus within 18 months after the Secretary makes the request, the Secretary shall prescribe appropriate regulations within 18 months. ‘‘( 3 ) If the Secretary does not request that the Railroad Safety Advisory Committee accept the task of developing regu- lations under subsection (b), the Secretary shall prescribe regu- lations within 3 years after the date of enactment of the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2 0 08. ‘‘(e) P I LO TP R O J E C TS.— ‘‘(1) I NG ENER A L.— N ot later than 2 years after the date of enactment of the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008, the Secretary shall conduct at least 2 pilot projects of sufficient si z e and scope to analyze specific practices which may be used to reduce fatigue for train and engine and other railroad employees as follows

‘‘(A) A pilot project at a railroad or railroad facility to evaluate the efficacy of communicating to employees notice of their assigned shift time 10 hours prior to the beginning of their assigned shift as a method for reducing employee fatigue. ‘‘( B ) A pilot project at a railroad or railroad facility to evaluate the efficacy of requiring railroads who use employee scheduling practices that subject employees to periods of unscheduled duty calls to assign employees to defined or specific unscheduled call shifts that are followed by shifts not subject to call, as a method for reducing employee fatigue. ‘‘(2) W AI V ER.—The Secretary may temporarily waive the requirements of this section, if necessary, to complete a pilot project under this subsection. ‘‘(f) DU T Y CALL DE F INE D .—In this section the term ‘duty call’ means a telephone call that a railroad places to an employee to notify the employee of his or her assigned shift time.’’. (2) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.— (A) The chapter analysis for chapter 211 is amended by adding at the end thereof the following: ‘ ‘ 21 1 09.Regulatory aut h or i ty. ’ ’. Deadlin e . Deadline s . R e gu la t i o ns.

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