{"data":{"id":"us/49-cfr-270.5","jurisdiction":"us","citation":"49 CFR 270.5","heading":"Definitions.","body":"As used in this part—\nAdministrator means the Federal Railroad Administrator or his or her delegate.\nConfidential Close Call Reporting System (C 3RS) means an FRA-sponsored voluntary program designed to improve the safety of railroad operations by allowing railroad employees to confidentially report currently unreported or underreported unsafe events.\nConfiguration management means a process that ensures that the configurations of all property, equipment, and system design elements are accurately documented.\nFRA means the Federal Railroad Administration.\nFully implemented means that all elements of a system safety program as described in the SSP plan are established and applied to the safety management of the passenger rail operation.\nHazard means any real or potential condition (as identified in a risk-based hazard analysis) that can cause injury, illness, or death; damage to or loss of a system, equipment, or property; or damage to the environment.\nPassenger means a person, excluding an on-duty employee, who is on board, boarding, or alighting from a rail vehicle for the purpose of travel.\nPassenger rail operation means an intercity, commuter, or other short-haul passenger rail service.\nPerson means an entity of any type covered under 49 U.S.C. 21301, including, but not limited to, the following: A railroad; a manager, supervisor, official, or other employee or agent of a railroad; any owner, manufacturer, lessor, or lessee of railroad equipment, track, or facilities; any independent contractor or subcontractor providing goods or services to a railroad; any employee of such owner, manufacturer, lessor, lessee, or independent contractor or subcontractor.\nPlant railroad means a plant or installation that owns or leases a locomotive, uses that locomotive to switch cars throughout the plant or installation, and is moving goods solely for use in the facility's own industrial processes. The plant or installation could include track immediately adjacent to the plant or installation if the plant railroad leases the track from the general system railroad and the lease provides for (and actual practice entails) the exclusive use of that trackage by the plant railroad and the general system railroad for purposes of moving only cars shipped to or from the plant. A plant or installation that operates a locomotive to switch or move cars for other entities, even if solely within the confines of the plant or installation, rather than for its own purposes or industrial processes, is not considered a plant railroad because the performance of such activity makes the operation part of the general railroad system of transportation.\nPositive train control system means a system designed to prevent train-to-train collisions, overspeed derailments, incursions into established work zone limits, and the movement of a train through a switch left in the wrong position, as described in subpart I of part 236 of this chapter.\nRail vehicle means railroad rolling stock, including, but not limited to, passenger and maintenance vehicles.\nRailroad means—\n(1) Any form of non-highway ground transportation that runs on rails or electromagnetic guideways, including—\n(i) Commuter or other short-haul rail passenger service in a metropolitan or suburban area and commuter railroad service that was operated by the Consolidated Rail Corporation on January 1, 1979; and\n(ii) High speed ground transportation systems that connect metropolitan areas, without regard to whether those systems use new technologies not associated with traditional railroads, but does not include rapid transit operations in an urban area that are not connected to the general railroad system of transportation; and\n(2) A person or organization that provides railroad transportation, whether directly or by contracting out operation of the railroad to another person.\nRisk means the combination of the probability (or frequency of occurrence) and the consequence (or severity) of a hazard.\nRisk-based hazard management means the processes (including documentation) used to identify and analyze hazards, assess and rank corresponding risks, and eliminate or mitigate the resulting risks.\nSafety culture means the shared values, actions and behaviors that demonstrate commitment to safety over competing goals and demands.\nSSP plan means system safety program plan.\nSystem safety means the application of management, economic, and engineering principles and techniques to optimize all aspects of safety, within the constraints of operational effectiveness, time, and cost, throughout all phases of a system life cycle.\nSystem safety program means a comprehensive process for the application of management and engineering principles and techniques to optimize all aspects of safety.\nSystem safety program plan means a document developed by the passenger rail operation that implements and supports the system safety program.\nTourist, scenic, historic, or excursion operations means railroad operations that carry passengers, often using antiquated equipment, with the conveyance of the passengers to a particular destination not being the principal purpose. Train movements of new passenger equipment for demonstration purposes are not tourist, scenic, historic, or excursion operations.","path":["Title 49—Transportation","Subtitle B—Other Regulations Relating to Transportation","CHAPTER II—FEDERAL RAILROAD ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION","PART 270—SYSTEM SAFETY PROGRAM","Subpart A—General"],"source_url":"https://www.ecfr.gov/api/versioner/v1/full/2026-08-25/title-49.xml","current_through":"2026-08-25","vintage":"","retrieved_at":"2026-08-27T02:26:34Z","sha256":"ba984dbfb93e5e9831f202d3860674555727fce026235d23354f477c4922c550","source_id":"us-cfr","stale":true,"prev":"us/49-cfr-270.3","next":"us/49-cfr-270.7"},"notice":"GroundRules: Original legal text. Not legal advice."}