Control of Alcohol and Drug Use: Expanded Application of FRA Alcohol and Drug Rules to Foreign Railroad Foreign-Based Employees Who Perform Train or Dispatching Service in the United States

In 2001, FRA proposed to make employees of a foreign railroad (a railroad incorporated outside the United States) whose primary reporting point is outside the United States who enter into the United States to perform train or dispatching service (foreign railroad foreign-based employees or "FRFB employees"). After a public hearing, a review of the comments, and consultations with the Canadian and Mexican governments, FRA is issuing a final rule that differs from the proposal in four ways; the two most significant revisions are summarized below. First, the final rule allows FRFB employees to enter into the United States for a distance of up to 10 route miles and remain excepted, as before, from FRA's requirements for employee assistance programs, pre-employment drug testing, and random alcohol and drug testing. Second, the final rule allows FRA's Associate Administrator for Safety to recognize a foreign railroad's substance abuse program promulgated under the laws of its home country as a compatible alternative to the return-to-service requirements if the program includes equivalents to these FRA provisions, and testing procedures, criteria, and assays reasonably comparable in effectiveness to all applicable provisions of DOT's procedures for workplace drug and alcohol testing programs.