Senate bill would require human and automated track inspections

Editor's note: This story has been updated with a statement from the Association of American Railroads.

U.S. Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) on Wednesday introduced legislation that would require railroads to use both automated track inspection (ATI) technology and human track inspections.

The goal of the Secure Tracks Act is to prevent train derailments, the senators said in a press release. The legislation comes as the Federal Railroad Administration greenlit waivers that allow big railroads to reduce inspections done by humans, they said. 

While ATI technology can efficiently detect defects in the track, it fails to detect a variety of key issues that cause train derailments, and therefore, human inspections continue to help reduce accidents and keep communities safe, according to the senators.

“I am all for using technology to keep our trains on the tracks and communities safe from derailments, but what we have learned is that technology can’t do it all alone. It misses things that humans see and hear, and if we want to make sure our railroads are safe, we need both technology and real people who have the experience and knowledge," said Baldwin.

The bill would:

• require all main line track designated for operation at Class 3 speeds or higher to perform visual track inspections twice each week; 
• require any defect or unsafe condition identified to be corrected, protected or removed from service immediately upon detection;
• require qualified inspectors, if they find a deviation, to immediately initiate remedial action and grants the inspector sole authority to authorize any subsequent movements to facilitate repairs on track that is out of service; 
• prohibit the secretary of transportation from issuing a waiver, exemption, or modification of any safety regulation if the proposed alternative inspection, detection or monitoring method fails to identify or detect all defect conditions defined or recognized as unsafe under applicable FRA regulations; and
• require that a qualifying track geometry measurement system (TGMS), a type of ATI, operates over various track classifications at specified frequencies.

“Technology can help us monitor our railways but there is no substitute for in-person inspections conducted by railroad professionals. We can’t cut corners, especially when it comes to keeping our trains on the tracks. Technology must serve workers—not the other way around," Hawley said.

U.S. Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.) is leading the House companion bill.

Railroads currently use ATI as a complement to manual and visual inspections; the technology has been proven to identify up to 200 times more track defects than visual inspections, according to the Association of American Railroads.

"In fact, FRA data shows that in 2025 freight railroads had the lowest rate of track-caused accidents in railroad history, thanks in part to the deployment of advanced technologies, like ATI," said AAR spokesman Ted Greener in an email. "Taken together, this blended approach is working and delivering significant safety gains across the freight-rail network and in communities. Efforts to undermine implementation of ATI and other technologies in the future, like the Secure Tracks Act, are bad for safety, consumers and communities nationwide."