[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 9 (Thursday, January 13, 2000)]
[Notices]
[Page 2223]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-784]



[[Page 2223]]

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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Railroad Administration
[Docket No. FRA-1999-6404]


Extension of Comment Period; Petition for Grandfathering of Non-
Compliant Equipment; National Railroad Passenger Corporation

    On October 18, 1999, the National Railroad Passenger Corporation 
(Amtrak) petitioned the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) for 
grandfathering of non-compliant passenger equipment manufactured by 
Renfe Talgo of America (Talgo) for use on rail lines between Vancouver, 
British Columbia and Eugene, Oregon; between Las Vegas, Nevada and Los 
Angeles, California; and between San Diego, California and San Luis 
Obispo, California. Notice of receipt of such petition was published in 
the Federal Register on November 2, 1999, at 64 FR 59230. Interested 
parties were invited to comment on the petition before the end of the 
comment period of December 2, 1999.
    On December 2, 1999, FRA extended the comment period in this 
proceeding until December 15, 1999, following a Freedom of Information 
Act (FOIA) request that certain items in FRA files referenced in 
Amtrak's petition be made available for review (see 64 FR 68195; Dec. 
6, 1999). Talgo has objected to release of certain of the requested 
information under FOIA exemption 4 (5 U.S.C. 552(b)(4)), which exempts 
from release trade secrets and commercial or financial information 
obtained from a person that is privileged or confidential. On December 
15, 1999, FRA further extended the comment period in this proceeding 
until 10:00 a.m. on December 27, 1999 to enable FRA to finalize its 
response to the FOIA request, and to permit the responder time to 
analyze the documents released by FRA (see 64 FR 71846; Dec. 22, 1999). 
Unfortunately, processing the FOIA request has taken longer than 
anticipated; FRA released documents on November 30, December 10, and 
December 21. FRA has redacted from the documents released information 
that is protected under FOIA exemption 4. The FOIA commenter has 
appealed to the FRA Administrator FRA's decision to redact certain of 
the information contained in the requested documents; FRA is processing 
this appeal.
    On December 13, the FOIA requester again asked FRA to further 
extend the comment period so that the requester would have 15 days 
after receipt of all of the requested documents to analyze the 
documents and prepare comments on the grandfather petition. FRA agreed 
to this request and on December 23, 1999, extended the comment period 
to the close of business on January 10, 2000 (see 64 FR 73602; Dec. 30, 
1999).
    FRA has placed in the docket for this proceeding a copy of the 
documents provided to the FOIA requester for this request. FRA has also 
placed in the docket several documents that it received from Talgo that 
are relevant to the Amtrak petition. Two of these documents contain 
comments or corrections to the minutes of the June 17, 1999 meeting 
between FRA, Amtrak and Talgo; the minutes of this meeting was one of 
the documents released to the FOIA requester. Another document contains 
weld information pertaining to the Talgo equipment. The remaining 
documents contain design changes to the Talgo equipment requested by 
FRA. Talgo has requested confidential treatment, under exemption 4 of 
FOIA, for certain information in the documents. FRA has redacted from 
the Talgo documents information that is protected by exemption 4.
    On January 4, 2000, the FOIA requester made a further request for 
documents related to Amtrak's petition. FRA is currently processing 
this request; while a partial response was provided on January 6, 2000, 
the full response will not be complete before January 10. On January 7, 
the FOIA requester asked that FRA extend the comment period. FRA is 
extending the comment period until January 31, 2000, to enable FRA time 
to respond to the FOIA request in full, and to permit the responder 
time to analyze the documents released by FRA. FRA expects that further 
extensions of the comment period will not be necessary.
    FRA will place in the docket a copy of the documents provided to 
the FOIA requester for this further request. Unredacted versions of all 
of the documents placed in the docket are available to agency staff and 
will be used in the agency's review of the Amtrak petition to the 
extent deemed necessary.
    Comments received after January 31, 2000 will be considered to the 
extent possible. Amtrak's petition, documents inserted in the docket, 
and all written communications concerning this proceeding are available 
for examination during regular business hours (9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.) 
at DOT Central Docket Management Facility, Room PL-401 (Plaza Level), 
400 Seventh, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20590-0001. All documents in the 
public docket are also available for inspection and copying on the 
Internet at the docket facility's Web site at http://dms.dot.gov.

    Issued in Washington, DC on January 7, 2000.
Grady C. Cothen, Jr.,
Deputy Associate Administrator for Safety Standards and Program 
Development.
[FR Doc. 00-784 Filed 1-12-00; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-06-P