Top U.S. Railroad Official Out After Reports of Moonlighting

• February 10 2018
• Arit John

Heath Hall has resigned as a top official with the Federal Railroad Administration, a Department of Transportation official said.

Heath Hall has resigned as a top official with the Federal Railroad Administration, a Department of Transportation official said.

His departure follows a report that Hall was also working as a public-relations consultant for the Madison County, Mississippi, sheriff’s office.

Hall’s firm continued to collect payments from the county between July and December, although Hall -- who was appointed to the FRA in June -- had pledged in a federal ethics form that the firm wouldn’t be active while he worked at the department, Politico reported on Saturday.

The DOT was unaware of the information being reported regarding outside work Hall took on during his time at FRA, the agency representative said in a statement. “Those allegations, if true, are troubling.”

Documents from the FRA have variously referred to Hall as “acting administrator,” “deputy administrator,” and sometimes both. In its statement the agency said Hall “was not the acting administrator when he resigned.” Hall has been on leave since early January, a DOT official said.

The FRA, which oversees U.S. railroad safety, has been under scrutiny following a series of high-profile accidents involving Amtrak trains. Amtrak suffered three fatal crashes in less than two months including an incident a week ago in which a passenger train collided with a parked CSX Corp. freight train in South Carolina, killing two Amtrak employees and injuring more than 100 people.

Hall’s brief tenure at the FRA also highlights an ongoing issue in President Donald Trump’s administration, where many key positions are unfilled. Among transportation agencies alone, both the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Federal Aviation Administration are run by temporary heads.

The DOT said that Juan Reyes III will remain the Acting Deputy Administrator of the FRA. Reyes is also the agency’s chief counsel. He’s scheduled to represent the FRA at a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing on Feb. 15 about rail safety.

— With assistance by Ryan Beene