358
Opinion of the Court
MUTCD, that pre-empts state tort actions. Whether the State should have originally installed different or additional devices, or whether conditions at the crossing have since changed such that automatic gates and flashing lights would be appropriate, is immaterial to the pre-emption question.
It should be noted that nothing prevents a State from revisiting the adequacy of devices installed using federal funds. States are free to install more protective devices at such crossings with their own funds or with additional funding from the FHWA. What States cannot do—once they have installed federally funded devices at a particular crossing— is hold the railroad responsible for the adequacy of those devices. The dissent objects that this bestows on railroads a "double windfall": The Federal Government pays for the installation of the devices, and the railroad is simultaneously absolved of state tort liability. Post, at 360-361. But the same is true of the result urged by respondent and the Government. Respondent and the Government acknowledge that §§ 646.214(b)(3) and (4) can pre-empt state tort law, but they argue that pre-emption only occurs when the State has installed the devices pursuant to a diagnostic team's analysis of the crossing in question. Under this reading, railroads would receive the same "double windfall"—federal funding of the devices and pre-emption of state tort law—so long as a diagnostic team has evaluated the crossing. The supposed conferral of a "windfall" on the railroads therefore casts no doubt on our construction of the regulation.
Sections 646.214(b)(3) and (4) "cover the subject matter" of the adequacy of warning devices installed with the participation of federal funds. As a result, the FRSA pre-empts respondent's state tort claim that the advance warning signs and reflectorized crossbucks installed at the Oakwood Church Road crossing were inadequate. Because the TDOT used federal funds for the signs' installation, §§ 646.214(b)(3) and (4) governed the selection and installation of the devices. And because the TDOT determined that warning devices
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