676
Opinion of Thomas, J.
IV
We hold that, under the FRSA, federal regulations adopted by the Secretary of Transportation pre-empt respondent's negligence action only insofar as it asserts that petitioner's train was traveling at an excessive speed. Accordingly, the judgment of the Court of Appeals is
Affirmed.
Justice Thomas, with whom Justice Souter joins, concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I believe that the Federal Railroad Safety Act and the Secretary of Transportation's implementing regulations preempt neither of respondent/cross-petitioner Easterwood's state-law tort claims. I therefore concur in Parts I and II of the Court's opinion but dissent from the remainder.
In Part III of its opinion, the Court holds that the Secretary's regulation setting "maximum allowable operating speeds for all freight and passenger trains" pre-empts Easterwood's claim that CSX "breached its common-law duty to operate its train at a moderate and safe rate of speed" below the federally specified maximum speed at the Cook Street crossing. Ante, at 673 (citing 49 CFR § 213.9(a) (1992)). The Court concedes, however, that "the provisions of § 213.9(a) address only the maximum speeds at which trains are permitted to travel given the nature of the track on which they operate." Ante, at 674 (emphasis added). Likewise, CSX makes no effort to characterize any duty to reduce speed under Georgia law as a state-law obligation based on track safety, the precise "subject matter" "cover[ed]" by the Secretary's speed regulation. 45 U. S. C. § 434. Indeed, CSX admits that it shoulders a state-law duty to take measures
hazard. Reply Brief for Petitioner in No. 91-790, p. 3. As respondent's complaint alleges only that petitioner's train was traveling too quickly given the "time and place," App. 4, this case does not present, and we do not address, the question of FRSA's pre-emptive effect on such related claims.
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