Control of Alcohol and Drug Use: Coverage of Maintenance of Way (MOW) Employees and Retrospective Regulatory Review-Based Amendments

In response to Congress' mandate in the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (RSIA), FRA is expanding the scope of its drug and alcohol regulation to cover MOW employees. This rule also codifies guidance from FRA compliance manuals, responds to National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recommendations, and adopts substantive amendments based upon FRA's regulatory review of 30 years of implementation of this part. The final rule contains two significant differences from FRA's July 28, 2014 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM). First, it adopts part 214's definition of ``roadway worker'' to define ``MOW employee'' under this part. Second, because FRA has withdrawn its proposed peer support requirements, subpart K contains a revised version of the troubled employee identification requirements previously in subpart E.