[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 238 (Thursday, December 11, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 69122-69123]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-30649]


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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.

Canadian Pacific Railway

[Waiver Petition Docket Number FRA-2003-16439]

    The Canadian Pacific Railway Company (CPR) seeks a waiver of 
compliance from certain provisions of the Railroad Locomotive Safety 
Standards, 49 CFR Part 229, on behalf of themselves, their U.S. 
subsidiaries, the Delaware & Hudson and the Soo Line Railroads, and the 
New York Air Brake Corporation (NYAB). Specifically, CPR requests 
relief from the requirements of 49 CFR 229.27(a)(2) Annual Tests and 49 
CFR 229.29(a) Biennial Tests, in order to evaluate extending the 
required periodic maintenance time intervals for NYAB generation II 
Computer Controlled Brake (CCB) equipment.
    CPR currently owns and operates 213 GE AC4400 locomotives built 
between December 1998 and September 2003, that are equipped with CCB II 
brake equipment. In August 2003, CPR, Transport Canada, and NYAB 
jointly performed a 5-year COT&S with a detailed tear-down inspection 
of the CCB II brake equipment from two randomly selected locomotives. 
According to CPR, all of the parties agreed that continued testing of 
extended COT&S intervals on a year-to-year basis was warranted, based 
on the encouraging results of the tests and inspections.
    CPR has proposed evaluating the extended COT&S intervals according 
to a test plan that NYAB developed for CPR and Transport Canada. The 
test plan has assigned locomotives into tests groups based on the 
scheduled periodic maintenance cycles. Candidate locomotives for test 
tear-downs would only include those units which have not had a prior 
COT&S and which have had the least amount of air brake maintenance 
activity since entering service.
    Approval of this waiver will permit the continued operation of the 
test locomotives in the United States, as the COT&S time intervals are 
extended beyond the five-year requirement. Also, it will further add to 
the industry's knowledge of the reliability of the CCB technology, 
building on a similar waiver (FRA-1999-6252) which was granted to CSXT 
on in September 1, 2000. It is CPR's intention that FRA would join 
Transport Canada and NYAB in evaluating the extended COT&S intervals 
for their CCB equipped locomotives, if this waiver is approved.

[[Page 69123]]

    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 communications concerning these proceedings should identify the 
appropriate docket number (e.g., Waiver Petition Docket Number FRA-
2003-16429) 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.
    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). The Statement 
may also be found at http://dms.dot.gov.

    Issued in Washington, DC on December 5, 2003.
Grady C. Cothen, Jr.,
Deputy Associate Administrator for Safety Standards and Program 
Development.
[FR Doc. 03-30649 Filed 12-10-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-06-P