[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 117 (Wednesday, June 18, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Page 36628]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-15397]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Railroad Administration


Notice of Application for Approval of Discontinuance or 
Modification of a Railroad Signal System or Relief From the 
Requirements of Title 49 Code of Federal Regulations Part 236

    Pursuant to title 49 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) part 235 and 
49 U.S.C. 20502(a), the following railroad has petitioned the Federal 
Railroad Administration (FRA) seeking approval for the discontinuance 
or modification of the signal system or relief from the requirements of 
49 CFR part 236 as detailed below.

Docket No. FRA-2003-15145

Applicant: Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway, Mr. William G. 
Peterson, Director Signal Engineering, 4515 Kansas Avenue, Kansas City, 
Kansas 66106.

    Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway (BNSF) seeks approval of 
the proposed discontinuance and removal of the automatic block signal 
system, between Hettinger, North Dakota, milepost 926.0 and Terry, 
Montana, milepost 1078.9, on the Montana Division, Hettinger 
Subdivision, a distance of approximately 153 miles, with governance of 
train movements by Track Warrant Control.
    The reason given for the proposed changes is that due to an ice 
storm which disabled about 35 percent of the pole line on the 
Subdivision, the signal pole line is in need of large amounts of 
replacement capital to restore and rehabilitate this line. BNSF 
believes that this scarce capital would be much better spent on other 
lines with greater track density, because this line averages only four 
trains per day.
    Any interested party desiring to protest the granting of an 
application shall set forth specifically the grounds upon which the 
protest is made, and include a concise statement of the interest of the 
party in the proceeding. Additionally, one copy of the protest shall be 
furnished to the applicant at the address listed above.
    All communications concerning this proceeding should be identified 
by the docket number and must be submitted to the Docket Clerk, DOT 
Central Docket Management Facility, Room PL-401 (Plaza Level), 400 7th 
Street, SW., Washington, DC 20590-0001. Communications received within 
45 days of the date of this notice will be considered by the FRA before 
final action is taken. Comments received after that date will be 
considered as far as practicable. All written communications concerning 
these proceedings are available for examination during regular business 
hours (9 a.m.-5 p.m.) at the above facility. 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.
    FRA wishes to inform all potential commenters that anyone is able 
to search the electronic form of all comments received into any of our 
dockets by the name of the individual submitting the comment (or 
signing the comment, if submitted on behalf of an association, 
business, labor union, etc.). You may review DOT's complete Privacy Act 
Statement in the Federal Register published on April 11, 2000 (Volume 
65, Number 70; Pages 19477-78) or you may visit http://dms.dot.gov.
    FRA expects to be able to determine these matters without an oral 
hearing. However, if a specific request for an oral hearing is 
accompanied by a showing that the party is unable to adequately present 
his or her position by written statements, an application may be set 
for public hearing.

    Issued in Washington, DC, on June 11, 2003.
Grady C. Cothen, Jr.,
Deputy Associate Administrator for Safety Standards and Program 
Development.
[FR Doc. 03-15397 Filed 6-17-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-06-P