The Northeast Operating Rules Advisory Committee (NORAC) is a body of railroads that establish a set of operating rules for railroads in North America. The NORAC rulebook is used by full and associate member railroads, located mostly in the

Northeast United States The Northeastern United States (also referred to as the Northeast, the East Coast, or the American Northeast) is census regions United States Census BureauLocated on the Atlantic coast of North America, the region borders Canada to its nort ...

Members

Full members

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

(AMTK) *

Conrail Shared Assets Operations Conrail Shared Assets Operations (CSAO) is the commonly used name for modern-day Conrail (reporting mark CRCX), an American railroad company. It operates three networks, the North Jersey, South Jersey/Philadelphia, and Detroit Shared Assets Are ...

(CR) *

CSX Transportation CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad company operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Operating about 21,000 route miles () of track, it is the lead ...

(CSXT) * Keolis Commuter Services: Boston (KCS) *

New Jersey Transit Rail Operations NJ Transit Rail Operations is the rail division of NJ Transit. It operates commuter rail service in New Jersey, with most service centered on transportation to and from New York City, Hoboken, and Newark. NJ Transit also operates rail servic ...

(NJTR) *

New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway The New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway , also referred to as the Susie-Q or the Susquehanna, and formerly the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railroad, is an American Railroad classes#Class II, Class II Rail freight transport, freight r ...

Corp. (NYSW) *

Norfolk Southern The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. The comp ...

(NS) *

Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority SEPTA, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, is a regional public transportation authority that operates bus, rapid transit, commuter rail, light rail, and electric trolleybus services for nearly four million people throughou ...

(SEPTA)

Associate members

Adirondack Scenic Railroad The Adirondack Railroad (formerly the Adirondack Scenic Railroad) is a heritage railway serving the Adirondack Park that operates over former New York Central Railroad trackage between Utica and Tupper Lake. The railroad is operated by the n ...

(ADIX) * Adrian and Blissfield Railroad (ABDF) *

Bay Colony Railroad The Bay Colony Railroad was a shortline railroad (STB Class III) operating in Massachusetts. Formerly operating along most of the south coast region (including all lines on Cape Cod), Bay Colony's final operations ceased in late 2023, when the ...

(BCLR) *

Buckingham Branch Railroad Buckingham Branch Railroad is a Class III short-line railroad operating over 275 miles (443 km) of historic and strategic trackage in Central Virginia. Sharing overhead traffic with CSX and Amtrak, the company's headquarters are in Dill ...

(BB) *

Cape Cod Central Railroad The Cape Cod Central Railroad is a heritage railroad located on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. It operates on a rail line known as the Cape Main Line, which is owned by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. The line was previously owne ...

Cape May Seashore Lines Cape May Seashore Lines is a short line railroad in southern New Jersey that operates both freight trains and excursion trains. It offers two excursion services: a round trip between Richland and Tuckahoe along the Beesley's Point Secondary ...

(CMSL) *

Central New England Railroad The Central New England Railroad is a railroad in and near Hartford, Connecticut. It began operations in 1995 on former Conrail trackage. Central New England Railroad operates two different lines in Connecticut: the Armory Branch and the Griffin ...

(CNZR) * Central Railroad Company of Indiana (CIND) *

Central Railroad Company of Indianapolis The Central Railroad of Indianapolis is a Class III short-line railroad that operates approximately miles of track in north central Indiana, connecting Marion, Indiana with Hartford City, Amboy, and Kokomo, Indiana. CERA interchanges with No ...

(CERA) *Chesapeake and Delaware LLC *

Connecticut Southern Railroad The Connecticut Southern Railroad is a long short-line railroad operating in Connecticut and Massachusetts. The company was formed in 1996 as a spinoff of Conrail by shortline holding company RailTex and subsequently acquired in 2000 by RailA ...

(CSO) *C&S Railroad Corporation *East Jersey Railroad & Terminal Co. (EJR) *

Finger Lakes Railway The Finger Lakes Railway is a Class III railroad in the Finger Lakes region of New York. The company began operations on July 23, 1995, and operates in Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, Ontario, Schuyler and Yates counties. The FGLK operates 18 diesel ...

(FGLK) *

Flats Industrial Railroad The Flats Industrial Railroad is a Class III railroad that provides short-line commercial/industrial switching service in Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, primarily with CSX Transportation and the Norfolk Southern Railway. History Trains h ...

(FIR) *

Fore River Transportation Corporation The Fore River Railroad is a class III railroad in eastern Massachusetts owned by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) and operated by the Fore River Transportation Corporation. It was originally built in 1902 and opened in 1903 a ...

(FRVT) * Genesee Valley Transportation (GVT) *

Housatonic Railroad Company The Housatonic Railroad ( ; ) is a Class III railroad operating in southwestern New England and eastern New York. It was chartered in 1983 to operate a short section of ex-New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad in northwestern Connecticut, and ...

(HRRC) *

Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad The Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad is a Class III railroadSurface Transportation BoardThe Belt Railway Company of Chicago -- Trackage Rights Exemption -- Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad Company January 9, 2002 in the United States. Ownership The IHB ...

(IHB) *

Luzerne and Susquehanna Railway The Luzerne and Susquehanna Railway is a shortline railroad in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. It both serves local traffic and connects to the Reading Blue Mountain and Northern Railroad in Pittston and to the Norfolk Southern Railway at three sep ...

(LS) *

Maine Eastern Railroad Maine Eastern Railroad was a railroad that operated in coastal Maine, between Brunswick and Rockland, on the former Maine Central Rockland Branch rail line.. Maine Eastern passenger trains connected with the Amtrak '' Downeaster'' passenger ...

(MERR) *

Massachusetts Central Railroad The Massachusetts Central Railroad is a short line railroad in western Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1975 to provide railroad transportation services on portions of the Boston & Maine Wheelwright Branch in and around their ...

(MCER) *

Massachusetts Coastal Railroad The Massachusetts Coastal Railroad is a Class III railroad serving south-eastern Massachusetts. The railroad maintains track from Hyannis to Framingham, operating over 135 miles of track between Hyannis and Fall River/New Bedford. The railroa ...

(MC) *

Milford-Bennington Railroad The Milford-Bennington Railroad, founded in 1987, is a shortline railroad in New Hampshire, United States. The company primarily hauls gravel, sand, and aggregates. The railroad operates of track owned by the State of New Hampshire between Bennin ...

(MBRX) *

Morristown and Erie Railway Morristown & Erie Railway is a short-line railroad based in Morristown, New Jersey, chartered in 1895 as the Whippany River Railroad. It operates freight rail service in Morris County, New Jersey and surrounding areas on the original Whippany L ...

(ME) *Mountain Division Railway Corporation *Narragansett Bay Railroad Company *

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...

* Naugatuck Railroad Company (NAUG) *

New Hope and Ivyland Railroad The New Hope Railroad , formerly and colloquially known as the New Hope and Ivyland Railroad and the New Hope Steam Railway and Museum, is a shortline railroad, shortline and heritage railway, heritage railroad located in New Hope, Pennsylvania. ...

(NHRR) * New York and Greenwood Lake Railway (NYGL) *

New York New Jersey Rail, LLC New York New Jersey Rail, LLC is a switching and terminal railroad that operates the only car float operation across Upper New York Bay between Jersey City, New Jersey and Brooklyn, New York. Since mid-November 2008, it has been owned by ...

(NYNJ) * North Shore Railroad (NSHR) *

Northern Central Railway The Northern Central Railway (NCRY) was a Class I Railroad in the United States connecting Baltimore, Maryland, with Sunbury, Pennsylvania, along the Susquehanna River. Completed in 1858, the line came under the control of the Pennsylvania R ...

(NCRY) *Owego & Hartford Railway, Inc. (OHRY) *

Pennsylvania Northeastern Railroad The Pennsylvania Northeastern Railroad is a short-line railroad operating on trackage mostly in Bucks and Montgomery counties to the north of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was created in 2011, taking over former operations from CSX Transporta ...

(PNE) * Plymouth & Lincoln Railroad *Port Jersey Railroad (PJR) *Raritan Central Railway (RCRY) * Seaview Transportation Company (SVTX) *

Seminole Gulf Railway The Seminole Gulf Railway is a short line railroad, short line freight and passenger excursion railroad headquartered in Fort Myers, Florida, that operates two former CSX Transportation railroad lines in Southwest Florida. The company's Fort M ...

(SGLR) * SMS Rail Service (SLRS) * Somerset Railroad (SOM) * Southern New Jersey Rail Group (NJ Transit RiverLINE) *

Southern Railroad of New Jersey The Southern Railroad of New Jersey is a small short-line railroad company based in Winslow Township, New Jersey. The railroad operates freight service in two areas in Southern New Jersey. In the Winslow area, trains operate out of Winslow Junc ...

(SRNJ) * Springfield Terminal Railway Company, d/b/a Pan Am Railways (ST) * Valley Railroad (VALE) *

West Chester Railroad The West Chester Railroad is a privately owned and operated Heritage railway, tourist railroad that runs between Market Street in West Chester, Pennsylvania, in Chester County, Pennsylvania, Chester County, and the village of Glen Mills, Pennsy ...

(WCRL) *

Winamac Southern Railway The Winamac Southern Railway is a short-line railroad in northern Indiana, United States, operated under lease by the Toledo, Peoria and Western Railway. It owns two lines radiating from Logansport, IN, Logansport to Kokomo, IN, Kokomo and Bring ...

(WSRY) *

Winnipesaukee Scenic Railroad The Plymouth & Lincoln Railroad is a class III shortline railroad operating on the Concord-Lincoln rail line in central New Hampshire, United States. The railroad consists of two distinct passenger operations, the Granite State Scenic Railway, wh ...

Overview

The NORAC rules are intended to enhance

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

safety Safety is the state of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk. Meanings The word 'safety' entered the English language in the 1 ...

. The rules cover employee responsibilities, signaling equipment, procedures for safe train movement, dealing with accidents and other topics that directly and indirectly affect railroad safety. These rules govern operation on main lines, defined as those with some form of block control system. The 10th edition of the NORAC operating rules went into effect on November 6, 2011. The 11th edition of the NORAC operating rules went into effect on February 1, 2018. The 12th edition of the NORAC Operating Rules went into effect on January 1, 2024.

History

In January 1985, six railroads (

Conrail Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do busine ...

Metro-North The Metro-North Commuter Railroad Company , also branded as MTA Metro-North Railroad and commonly called simply Metro-North, is a suburban commuter rail service operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), a public authority of ...

New Jersey Transit New Jersey Transit Corporation, branded as NJ Transit or NJTransit and often shortened to NJT, is a state-owned public transportation system that serves the U.S. state of New Jersey and portions of the states of New York and Pennsylvania. It ...

, and Delaware & Hudson) met in

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, most populous City (New Jersey), city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, the county seat of Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, and a principal city of the New York metropolitan area. ...

with the goal to create a common operating rulebook. In May 1985, a second meeting was held, with eight railroads present, five of the original six (Metro-North withdrew) plus

Providence and Worcester The Providence and Worcester Railroad (P&W; ) is a Class II railroad operating of tracks in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, as well as New York via trackage rights. The company was founded in 1844 to build a railroad betwe ...

Long Island Rail Road The Long Island Rail Road , or LIRR, is a Rail transport, railroad in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, stretching from Manhattan to the eastern tip of Suffolk County, New York, Suffolk County on Long Islan ...

, and

Boston & Maine The Boston and Maine Railroad was a United States, U.S. Class I railroad in northern New England. It was chartered in 1835, and became part of what was the Pan Am Railways network in 1983 (most of which was purchased by CSX in 2022). At the e ...

. The first rulebook was released in January 1987. It contained rules for three types of train control: automatic block (ABS), manual block (MBS), and voice (VCS). The MBS and VCS systems were both governed by NORAC's Form D, which is a

train order Train order operation is a system for safely moving trains using train orders, as opposed to fixed signals or cab signalling. In train order operation, a "train order" is an order issued by or through a proper railway official to govern the mov ...

transmitted directly to the train. In 1993 the fourth edition combined the MBS and VCS rules into a single "Form D Control System" (DCS).

References

{{reflist, 30em

External links

NORAC: Northeast Operating Rules Advisory CommitteeU S Department of Transportation - Compliance with Railroad Operating Rules and Corporate Culture Influences, October 1999
Railway signaling in the United States Rail transportation in North America