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Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) issued a new document entitled FRA Approach to Managing Gap Safety. The document was developed by the Rail Safety Advisory Committee (RSAC) General Passenger Safety Task Force and provides guidance on how to address safety issues posed by the gap between railcars and high level station platforms. The document received final approval from the full Railroad Safety Advisory Committee on February 20, 2008.

The document recommends that all passenger rail operators establish gap safety management programs to establish and consistently maintain a uniform gap and uniform boarding and alighting conditions at each station. The gap safety management program should:

• use engineering evaluation and analysis to establish gap standards for all high level stations, and,
• apply mitigation strategies to further reduce the risk of gap accidents.

For further information, contact Daniel Knote at Daniel.Knote@dot.gov or
Robert Adduci from the Volpe Center at robert.adduci@volpe.dot.gov.

Passenger Rail Station Gap Management Guide