[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 117 (Wednesday, June 18, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Page 36625]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-15399]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Railroad Administration


Petition for Waiver of Compliance

    In accordance with part 211 of Title 49 Code of Federal Regulations 
(CFR), notice is hereby given that the Federal Railroad Administration 
(FRA) received a request for a waiver of compliance with certain 
requirements of its safety standards. The individual petition is 
described below, including the party seeking relief, the regulatory 
provisions involved, the nature of the relief being requested, and the 
petitioner's arguments in favor of relief.

Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad

[Docket Number FRA-2003-14986]

    Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad (DM&E) seeks a waiver of 
compliance from the provisions of the Track Safety Standards, 49 CFR 
213.113(a), regarding defective rails.
    The DM&E is petitioning for a waiver which would provide relief 
from replacing rails that contain bolt hole/rail crack-outs that 
emanate from the edge of the rail to the bolt hole `one' location of 
various rail joint locations.
    The petitioner states that rails with bolt-hole/rail crack-outs up 
to 6'' maximum from the end of the rail to the bolt hole `one' location 
can be allowed to remain in service as the broken-out piece of rail 
remains tightly held by the joint bars and thus poses less danger of 
breaking loose. The petitioner proposes to institute a 10 MPH slow 
order at these locations as well as schedule daily visual inspections 
in lieu of constant visual inspection of each operation over that 
defect (for up to no more than 30 days for any instance) by qualified 
personnel as per 49 CFR 213.7. If the cracks grow greater than 6'' from 
the edge of rail or the rail section becomes loose, priority will be 
given to that location for an immediate rail replacement. The 
petitioner feels that this will enable the DM&E to more efficiently 
utilize its limited resources.
    Interested parties are invited to participate in these proceedings 
by submitting written views, data, or comments. FRA does not anticipate 
scheduling a public hearing in connection with these proceedings since 
the facts do not appear to warrant a hearing. If any interested party 
desires an opportunity for oral comment, they should notify FRA in 
writing before the end of the comment period and specify the basis for 
their request.
    All communication concerning these proceedings should identify the 
appropriate docket number (e.g., Waiver Petition Docket Number 2003-
14986) and must be submitted to the Docket Clerk, DOT Docket Management 
Facility, Room PL-401 (Plaza Level), 400 7th Street, SW., Washington, 
DC 20590. Communications received within 45 days of the date of this 
notice will be considered by 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.


    Issued in Washington, DC on June 11, 2003.
Grady C. Cothen, Jr.,
Deputy Associate Administrator for Safety Standards and Program 
Development.
[FR Doc. 03-15399 Filed 6-17-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-06-P