Freight railcars — especially tank cars carrying hazardous materials like the chlorine that derailed in East Palestine, Ohio in 2023 — currently rely largely on manual inspections and ground-based detectors to flag mechanical problems. This bill would create a Federal Railroad Administration grant program providing $100 million per year for fiscal years 2026-2029 to help freight railcar owners purchase and install onboard telematics and gateway devices that transmit real-time data on a railcar's location, wheel-bearing temperature, hand-brake status, hatch position, and internal temperature. Grants would prioritize newly-built railcars and cars carrying toxic-inhalation-hazard, flammable, and other hazardous materials, and would bar funding for technology owned or controlled by Chinese or other adversary state-owned enterprises. A separate $10 million-per-year pilot would help develop new sensor types.
Corporate Benefits
- Federal grants to freight railcar owners — $400 million over 4 years for telematics and gateway device installation
Environmental Concerns
- Hazmat railcar visibility — Grant priority targets toxic-inhalation, flammable, and hazardous-materials tank cars for sensor deployment
Congressional Summary
American Tank Car Modernization Act of 2025This bill establishes new Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) pilot and grant programs to outfit tank railcars with onboard sensors capable of delivering real-time safety-related condition data while a train is in motion.Specifically, the FRA must establish a grant program for freight railcar owners or operators to purchase and install (1) onboard freight railcar telematics systems (for wirelessly communicating a railcar's location and health), or (2) onboard freight railcar gateway devices (for collecting and exchanging data between railcar devices, including monitoring and telematics systems).In selecting grant recipients, the FRA must prioritize installation of these systems or devices in newly built tank railcars and by the type of load carried, starting with tank cars in TIH/PIH (toxic or poison inhalation hazard) service.In addition, the FRA must establish a pilot program toassist freight railcar owners and manufacturers in the development of onboard sensor technologies in order to add visibility to the safety of freight railcars, andencourage development of freight railcar onboard sensors that communicate to the freight railcar onboard gateway devices to offer future capabilities of real-time visibility (e.g., wheel and wheel bearing temperature).
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- House
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Introduced in House
- Action Date
- 2025-03-31
- Date Added
- 2026-05-18
- Source
- Congress.gov →
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