(a) Electronic recordkeeping system. For purposes of compliance with the recordkeeping requirements of subpart B, a railroad, or a contractor or a subcontractor to a railroad may create and maintain any of the records required by subpart B through electronic transmission, storage, and retrieval provided that all of the following conditions are met:

(1) The system used to generate the electronic record meets all requirements of this paragraph (a) of this section and all requirements of §§ 228.203 and 228.205;

(2) The electronically generated record contains the information required by § 228.11;

(3) The railroad, or contractor or subcontractor to the railroad, monitors its electronic database of employee hours of duty records through a sufficient number of monitoring indicators to ensure a high degree of accuracy of these records;

(4) The railroad, or contractor or subcontractor to the railroad, trains its affected employees on the proper use of the electronic recordkeeping system to enter the information necessary to create their hours of service record, as required by § 228.207;

(5) The railroad, or contractor or subcontractor to the railroad, maintains an information technology security program adequate to ensure the integrity of the system, including the prevention of unauthorized access to the program logic or individual records; and

(6) FRA's Associate Administrator for Railroad Safety/Chief Safety Officer may prohibit or revoke the authority to use an electronic system if FRA finds the system is not properly secure, is inaccessible to FRA, or fails to record and store the information adequately and accurately. FRA will record such a determination in writing, including the basis for such action, and will provide a copy of its determination to the affected railroad, or contractor or subcontractor to a railroad.

(b) Automated recordkeeping system. For purposes of compliance with the recordkeeping requirements of subpart B of this part, an eligible smaller railroad, or a contractor or a subcontractor that provides covered service employees to such a railroad, may create and maintain any of the records required by subpart B using an automated recordkeeping system if all of the following conditions are met:

(1) The automated recordkeeping system meets all requirements of paragraph (b) of this section and all requirements of § 228.206; and

(2) The eligible smaller railroad or its contractor or subcontractor complies with all of the requirements of paragraphs (a)(2) and (a)(4) through (6) of this section for its automated records and automated recordkeeping system.

(c) If a railroad, or a contractor or subcontractor to the railroad, is no longer eligible to use an automated recordkeeping system to record data subpart B of this part requires, the entity must begin keeping manual or electronic records and must retain its automated records as required under § 228.9(c) unless the entity requests, and FRA grants, a waiver under § 211.41 of this chapter.

(a) System security. The integrity of the program and database must be protected by a security system that utilizes an employee identification number and password, or a comparable method, to establish appropriate levels of program access meeting all of the following standards:

(1) Data input is restricted to the employee or train crew or signal gang whose time is being recorded, with the following exceptions:

(i) A railroad, or a contractor or subcontractor to a railroad, may allow its recordkeeping system to pre-populate fields of the hours of service record provided that—

(A) The recordkeeping system pre-populates fields of the hours of service record with information known to the railroad, or contractor or subcontractor to the railroad, to be factually accurate for a specific employee.

(B) The recordkeeping system may also provide the ability for employees to copy data from one field of a record into another field, where applicable.

(C) Estimated, historical, or arbitrary data are not used to pre-populate any field of an hours of service record.

(D) A railroad, or a contractor or a subcontractor to a railroad, is not in violation of this paragraph if it makes a good faith judgment as to the factual accuracy of the data for a specific employee but nevertheless errs in pre-populating a data field.

(E) The employee may make any necessary changes to the data by typing into the field, without having to access another screen or obtain clearance from the railroad, or a contractor or subcontractor to a railroad.

(ii) A railroad, or a contractor or a subcontractor to a railroad, shall allow employees to complete a verbal quick tie-up, or to transmit by facsimile or other electronic means the information necessary for a quick tie-up, if—

(A) The employee is released from duty at a location at which there is no terminal available;

(B) Computer systems are unavailable as a result of technical issues; or

(C) Access to computer terminals is delayed and the employee has exceeded his or her maximum allowed time on duty.

(2) No two individuals have the same electronic identity.

(3) A record cannot be deleted or altered by any individual after the record is certified by the employee who created the record.

(4) Any amendment to a record is either—

(i) Electronically stored apart from the record that it amends, or

(ii) Electronically attached to the record as information without changing the original record.

(5) Each amendment to a record uniquely identifies the individual making the amendment.

(6) The electronic system provides for the maintenance of inspection records as originally submitted without corruption or loss of data.

(7) Supervisors and crew management officials can access, but cannot delete or alter the records of any employee after the report-for-duty time of the employee or after the record has been certified by the reporting employee.

(b) Identification of the individual entering data. The program must be capable of identifying each individual who entered data for a given record. If a given record contains data entered by more than one individual, the program must be capable of identifying each individual who entered specific information within the record.

(c) Capabilities of program logic. The program logic must have the ability to—

(1) Calculate the total time on duty for each employee, using data entered by the employee and treating each identified period as defined in § 228.5;

(2) Identify input errors through the use of program edits;

(3) Require records, including outstanding records, the completion of which was delayed, to be completed in chronological order;

(4) Require reconciliation when the known (system-generated) prior time off differs from the prior time off reported by an employee;

(5) Require explanation if the total time on duty reflected in the certified record exceeds the statutory maximum for the employee;

(6) Require the use of a quick tie-up process when the employee has exceeded or is within three minutes of his or her statutory maximum time on duty;

(7) Require that the employee's certified final release be not more than three minutes in the future, and that the employee may not certify a final release time for a current duty tour that is in the past, compared to the clock time of the computer system at the time that the record is certified, allowing for changes in time zones;

(8) Require automatic modification to prevent miscalculation of an employee's total time on duty for a duty tour that spans changes from and to daylight savings time;

(9) For train employees, require completion of a full record at the end of a duty tour when the employee initiates a tie-up with less than the statutory maximum time on duty and a quick tie-up is not mandated;

(10) For train employees, disallow use of a quick tie-up when the employee has time remaining to complete a full record, except as provided in paragraph (a)(1)(ii) of this section.

(11) Disallow any manipulation of the tie-up process that precludes compliance with any of the requirements specified by paragraphs (c)(1) through (c)(10) of this section.

(d) Search capabilities. The program must contain sufficient search criteria to allow any record to be retrieved through a search of any one or more of the following data fields, by specific date or by a date range not exceeding 30 days for the data fields specified by paragraphs (d)(1) and (d)(2) of this section, and not exceeding one day for the data fields specified by paragraphs (d)(3) through (d)(7) of this section:

(1) Employee, by name or identification number;

(2) Train or job symbol;

(3) Origin location, either yard or station;

(4) Released location, either yard or station;

(5) Operating territory (i.e., division or service unit, subdivision, or railroad-identified line segment);

(6) Certified records containing one or more instances of excess service; and

(7) Certified records containing duty tours in excess of 12 hours.

(e) The program must display individually each train or job assignment within a duty tour that is required to be reported by this part.

(a) FRA inspectors and State inspectors participating under 49 CFR Part 212 must have access to hours of service records created and maintained electronically that is obtained as required by § 228.9(b)(4).

(b) Railroads must establish and comply with procedures for providing an FRA inspector or participating State inspector with an identification number and temporary password for access to the system upon request, which access will be valid for a period not to exceed seven days. Access to the system must be provided as soon as possible and no later than 24 hours after a request for access.

(c) The inspection screen provided to FRA inspectors and participating State inspectors for searching employee hours of duty records must be formatted so that—

(1) Each data field entered by an employee on the input screen is visible to the FRA inspector or participating State inspector; and

(2) The data fields are searchable as described in § 228.203(d) and yield access to all records matching criteria specified in a search.

(3) Records are displayed in a manner that is both crew-based and duty tour oriented, so that the data pertaining to all employees who worked together as part of a crew or signal gang will be displayed together, and the record will include all of the assignments and activities of a given duty tour that are required to be recorded by this part.

(a) Use of electronic signature. Each employee creating a record required by subpart B of this part must sign the record using an electronic signature that meets the following requirements:

(1) The record contains the printed name of the signer and the date and actual time the signature was executed, and the meaning (such as authorship, review, or approval) associated with the signature;

(2) Each electronic signature is unique to one individual and shall not be used by, or assigned to, anyone else;

(3) Before an eligible smaller railroad, or a contractor or subcontractor to such a railroad, establishes, assigns, certifies, or otherwise sanctions an individual's electronic signature, or any element of such electronic signature, the organization shall verify the identity of the individual;

(4) A person using an electronic signature shall, prior to or at the time of each such use, certify to FRA that the person's electronic signature in the system, used on or after August 29, 2018 is the legally binding equivalent of the person's traditional handwritten signature;

(5) Each employee shall sign the initial certification of his or her electronic signature with a traditional handwritten signature, and each railroad using an automated system shall maintain certification of each electronic signature at its headquarters or the headquarters of any contractor or subcontractor providing employees who perform covered service to such a railroad, and railroads, contractors, and subcontractors must make the certification available to FRA upon request; and

(6) A person using an electronic signature in such a system shall, upon FRA request, provide additional certification or testimony that a specific electronic signature is the legally binding equivalent of his or her handwritten signature.

(b) System security. Railroads using an automated recordkeeping system must protect the integrity of the system by the use of an employee identification number and password, or a comparable method, to establish appropriate levels of program access meeting all of the following standards:

(1) Data input is restricted to the employee or train crew or signal gang whose time is being recorded, except that an eligible smaller railroad, or a contractor or subcontractor to such a railroad, may pre-populate fields of the hours of service record provided that—

(i) The eligible smaller railroad, or its contractor or subcontractor, pre-populates fields of the hours of service record with information the railroad, or its contractor or subcontractor knows is factually accurate for a specific employee.

(ii) The recordkeeping system may allow employees to copy data from one field of a record into another field, where applicable.

(iii) The eligible smaller railroad, or its contractor or subcontractor does not use estimated, historical, or arbitrary information to pre-populate any field of an hours of service record.

(iv) An eligible smaller railroad, or a contractor or a subcontractor to such a railroad, is not in violation of paragraph (b)(1) of this section if it makes a good faith judgment as to the factual accuracy of the data for a specific employee but nevertheless errs in pre-populating a data field.

(v) The employee may make any necessary changes to the data by typing into the field without having to access another screen or obtain clearance from railroad, or contractor or subcontractor to the railroad.

(2) No two individuals have the same electronic signature.

(3) No individual can delete or alter a record after the employee who created the record electronically signs the record.

(4) Any amendment to a record is either:

(i) Electronically stored apart from the record that it amends; or

(ii) Electronically attached to the record as information without changing the original record.

(5) Each amendment to a record uniquely identifies the individual making the amendment.

(6) The automated system maintains the records as originally submitted without corruption or loss of data. Beginning August 29, 2018, an eligible smaller railroad must retain back-up data storage for its automated records for the quarters prescribed in the following table for the time specified in § 228.9(c)(3), to be updated within 30 days of the end of each prescribed quarter—

(7) Supervisors and crew management officials can access, but cannot delete or alter, the records of any employee after the employee electronically signs the record.

(c) Identification of the individual entering data. If a given record contains data entered by more than one individual, the record must identify each individual who entered specific information within the record and the data the individual entered.

(d) Search capabilities. The automated recordkeeping system must store records using the following criteria so all records matching the selected criteria are retrieved from the same location:

(1) Date (month and year);

(2) Employee name or identification number; and

(3) Electronically signed records containing one or more instances of excess service, including duty tours in excess of 12 hours.

(e) Access to records. An eligible smaller railroad, or contractor or subcontractor providing covered service employees to such a railroad, must provide access to its hours of service records under subpart B that are created and maintained in its automated recordkeeping system to FRA inspectors and State inspectors participating under 49 CFR part 212, subject to the following requirements:

(1) Access to records created and maintained in the automated recordkeeping system must be obtained as required by § 228.9(c)(4);

(2) An eligible smaller railroad must establish and comply with procedures for providing an FRA inspector or participating State inspector with access to the system upon request and must provide access to the system as soon as possible but not later than 24 hours after a request for access;

(3) Each data field entered by an employee on the input screen must be visible to the FRA inspector or participating State inspector; and

(4) The data fields must be searchable as described in paragraph (d) of this section and must yield access to all records matching the criteria specified in a search.

(a) In general. A railroad, or a contractor or subcontractor to a railroad, shall provide its train employees, signal employees, and dispatching service employees and its supervisors of these employees with initial training and refresher training as provided in this section.

(b) Initial training. (1) Initial training shall include the following:

(i) Instructional components presented in a classroom setting or by electronic means; and

(ii) Experiential (“hands-on”) components; and

(iii) Training on—

(A) The aspects of the hours of service laws relevant to the employee's position that are necessary to understanding the proper completion of the hours of service record required by this part, and

(B) The entry of hours of service data, into the electronic system or automated system or on the appropriate paper records used by the railroad or contractor or subcontractor to a railroad for which the employee performs covered service; and

(iv) Testing to ensure that the objectives of training are met.

(2) Initial training shall be provided—

(i) To each current employee and supervisor of an employee as soon after May 27, 2009 as practicable; and

(ii) To new employees and supervisors prior to the time that they will be required to complete an hours of service record or supervise an employee required to complete an hours of service record.

(c) Refresher training. (1) The content and level of formality of refresher training should be tailored to the needs of the location and employees involved, except that the training shall—

(i) Emphasize any relevant changes to the hours of service laws, the recording and reporting requirements in subparts B and D of this part, or the electronic, automated, or manual recordkeeping system of the railroad or contractor or subcontractor to a railroad for which the employee performs covered service since the employee last received training; and

(ii) Cover any areas in which supervisors or other railroad managers are finding recurrent errors in the employees' records through the monitoring indicators.

(2) Refresher training shall be provided to each employee any time that recurrent errors in records prepared by the employee, discovered through the monitoring indicators, suggest, for example, the employee's lack of understanding of how to complete hours of service records.