414 Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 2 / Tuesday, January 4, 2011 / Notices 

be produced or displayed to Agency 

staff or other parties entitled to access. 

You do not need to request an 

exemption or obtain prior permission so 

long as the electronic record meets all 

of the regulation’s substantive 

requirements and remains accessible in 

a form that can be accurately 

reproduced for later reference. (This 

does not apply to documents filed 

directly with the Agency. See Question 

No. 6.) Examples of documents 

generated, maintained or exchanged by 

private parties include, but are not 

limited to: Employment applications, 

driver histories and other qualification 

records, leases formed under 49 CFR 

part 376, driver-vehicle inspection 

reports, and records of duty status. 

These are only examples of documents 

about which FMCSA received specific 

questions and is not an exhaustive list 

of the types of documents that can be 

generated, signed, maintained or 

exchanged electronically. 

Question 12: May I convert a paper 

document to an electronic document by 

typing the substantive information on 

the paper document into an electronic 

format such as a database? 

Guidance: By typing the substantive 

information from a paper document into 

an electronic format such as a database, 

you are creating a new electronic record, 

not creating an electronic copy of the 

original. While you may generate and 

maintain such documents for your own 

use, they do not take the place of the 

original documents. To preserve an 

accurate copy of the original paper 

document, you must use scanning or 

other ‘‘image capture’’ technology. See 

Questions 3 and 4 for additional 

guidance. 

Question 13: Is an electronic signature 

valid if a person only has access to an 

excerpt or summary at the time he or 

she signs a document? 

Guidance: No. If you only provide an 

excerpt or summary at the time someone 

signs a document you may not 

subsequently attach his or her electronic 

signature to the complete document. 

Issued on: December 29, 2010. 

Anne S. Ferro, 

Administratior. 

[FR Doc. 2010–33238 Filed 1–3–11; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4910–EX–P 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Federal Railroad Administration 

Tier 1 Environmental Impact Statement 

for the Los Angeles to San Luis 

Obispo (LOSSAN North) Rail Corridor 

Improvements Studies: Los Angeles, 

Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis 

Obispo counties, California 

AGENCY: Federal Railroad 

Administration (FRA), Department of 

Transportation (DOT). 

ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare an 

environmental impact statement. 

SUMMARY: FRA is issuing this notice to 

advise the public that FRA with the 

California Department of Transportation 

(Caltrans) will jointly prepare a Tier-1 

environmental impact statement (EIS) 

and a program environmental impact 

report (EIR) for rail corridor 

improvements to the Los Angeles to San 

Luis Obispo (LOSSAN North) rail 

corridor (LOSSAN North Program). FRA 

is also issuing this notice to solicit 

public and agency input into the 

development of the scope of the EIR/EIS 

and to advise the public that outreach 

activities conducted by Caltrans and its 

representatives will be considered in the 

preparation of the EIR/EIS. The 

objective of the Tier-1 EIR/EIS is to 

evaluate alternatives and present 

thorough environmental analysis to help 

make corridor level decisions regarding 

the level of intercity passenger rail 

service provided in the corridor, 

including variations in train frequency, 

trip time, and on-time performance. 

DATES: Locations, dates, and start and 

end times for public meetings involving 

the EIS are listed in the SUPPLEMENTARY

INFORMATION section of this notice. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For 

further information regarding the Tier-1 

environmental review, please contact: 

Ms. Lea Simpson, Manager, California 

Department of Transportation, Division 

of Rail, MS 74, PO Box 942874, 

Sacramento, CA 94274–0001, (telephone 

916–654–7184) or Ms. Melissa Elefante 

DuMond, Environmental Protection 

Specialist, Office of Railroad Policy and 

Development, Federal Railroad 

Administration, 1200 New Jersey 

Avenue, SE. (Mail Stop 20), 

Washington, DC 20590, (telephone 202– 

493–6366). 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Purpose and Need 

FRA and Caltrans have determined 

that improvements to the existing 

LOSSAN North rail corridor are 

necessary to meet the expected growth 

in population and resulting increases in 

intercity travel demand between Los 

Angeles and San Luis Obispo. As a 

result of this growth in travel demand, 

their travel delays from the growing 

congestion on California’s highways and 

at airports will increase. In terms of 

passenger volume, the LOSSAN corridor 

is the second-busiest intercity rail 

corridor in the nation, after the 

Northeast Corridor connecting 

Washington DC, New York, and Boston. 

However, rail capacity constraints result 

in rail congestion and travel delays 

which is compounded by delays related 

to weather conditions, accidents and 

other factors which collectively result in 

unreliable rail service. In addition, in 

some cases rail infrastructure has not 

been upgraded or improved in over one 

hundred years. Goals of the project 

underlying the environmental review 

include increasing the cost-effectiveness 

of State-supported intercity passenger 

rail systems; increasing the rail capacity 

on existing routes; reduction in running 

times to attract additional riders and to 

provide a more attractive service; and 

improvement to the safety of Statesupported intercity rail service. 

Rail Services Along Corridor 

Amtrak uses the LOSSAN rail 

corridor for the Pacific Surfliner Service 

between Los Angeles and San Luis 

Obispo that is supported by Caltrans. 

Amtrak’s Coast Starlight (service 

between Los Angeles, the Bay Area, and 

Portland/Seattle) also operates on the 

corridor. The Southern California 

Regional Rail Authority also uses the 

LOSSAN rail corridor for their 

Metrolink commuter rail service 

between Los Angeles and Ventura. 

Union Pacific operates freight service 

along the corridor. 

Environmental Review Process 

The EIS/EIR will be developed in 

accordance with the National 

Environmental Policy Act of 1969 

(NEPA), 42 U.S.C. 4321 and the Council 

on Environmental Quality (CEQ) 

regulations (40 CFR part 1500 et seq.) 

implementing NEPA; the California 

Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), 

Division 13, Public Resources Code; and 

FRA’s Procedures for Considering 

Environmental Impacts (64 FR 28545; 

May 26, 1999). The FRA and the 

Caltrans will use a tiered process, as 

provided for in 40 CFR 1508.28 and in 

accordance with FRA Procedures for the 

completion of the environmental review 

of the LOSSAN North Program. 

‘‘Tiering’’ is a staged environmental 

review process often applied to 

environmental reviews for complex 

transportation projects. The initial 

phase (Tier-1 EIS) of this process will 


jlentini on DSKJ8SOYB1PROD with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 2 / Tuesday, January 4, 2011 / Notices 415 

address broad questions and likely 

environmental effects for the entire 

corridor including, but not limited to, 

the type of service(s) being proposed, 

including cities and stations served, 

route alternatives, service levels, types 

of operations (speed, electric, or diesel 

powered), ridership projections, major 

infrastructure components, and 

identification of major terminal area or 

facility capacity constraints. Subsequent 

phases or tiers will analyze, at a greater 

level of detail, narrower site-specific 

proposals based on any decisions made 

in the Tier-1 EIR/EIS. 

Alternatives 

Alternatives to be evaluated and 

analyzed in the Program EIR/EIS 

include a no-action (No-Project or NoBuild) scenario and an alternative with 

multiple options that considers the 

construction of incremental, 

independent passenger rail 

improvements in the LOSSAN North 

rail corridor. Possible environmental 

impacts include displacement of 

commercial and residential properties; 

disproportionate impacts to minority 

and low-income populations; 

community and neighborhood 

disruption; increased noise and 

vibration along the rail corridor; traffic 

impacts associated with stations; effects 

to historic properties or archaeological 

sites; impacts to parks and recreation 

resources; visual quality effects; 

exposure to seismic and flood hazards; 

impacts to water resources, wetlands, 

and sensitive biological species and 

habitat; land use compatibility impacts; 

energy use; and impacts to agricultural 

lands. 

No-Build Alternative 

The no action (No-Project or NoBuild) alternative is defined to serve as 

the baseline for comparison of all 

alternatives. The No-Build Alternative 

represents the State’s transportation 

system (highway, air, and rail) as it 

exists, and as it would exist after 

completion of programs or projects 

currently funded or being implemented. 

The No-Build Alternative would draw 

upon the following sources of 

information: 

• State Transportation Improvement 

Program (STIP). 

• Regional Transportation Plans 

(RTPs) for all modes of travel. 

• Airport plans. 

• Passenger rail plans. 

Passenger Rail Alternative and Options 

The LOSSAN North Program 

improvements are incremental, 

independent rail upgrade projects to the 

LOSSAN corridor. The Passenger Rail 

Alternative will have ‘‘options’’ that 

consider timing of the improvements 

and logical groupings of improvements 

that reflect likely funding scenarios. The 

upgrade of the LOSSAN rail corridor 

was previously studied in the LOSSAN 

North Corridor Strategic Plan issued in 

October 2007, which identified major 

improvements that could be undertaken 

between the Los Angeles Union Station 

and the San Luis Obispo Amtrak 

Station. The improvements to be 

discussed in the program EIR/EIS may 

include: 

• Track upgrades. 

• Curve realignments. 

• Siding extensions and upgrades. 

• Addition of second main track. 

• Grade separations. 

• Station and platform upgrades. 

• Track realignments. 

• Run-through tracks. 

• Pedestrian crossing upgrades. 

• Installation of Centralized Traffic 

Control (CTC). 

Scoping and Comments 

FRA encourages broad participation 

in the EIR/EIS process during scoping 

and subsequent review of the resulting 

environmental document. Letters 

describing the proposed project and 

soliciting comments were sent to 

appropriate Federal, State, and local 

agencies, and appropriate railroads. 

Comments and suggestions are invited 

from all interested agencies and the 

public at large to insure the full range 

of issues related to the proposed action 

and all reasonable alternatives are 

addressed and all significant issues are 

identified. In particular, FRA is 

interested in determining whether there 

are areas of environmental concern 

where there might be the potential for 

significant impacts identifiable at a 

program level. Public agencies with 

jurisdiction are requested to advise the 

FRA and Caltrans of the applicable 

permit and environmental review 

requirements of each agency, and the 

scope and content of the environmental 

information that is germane to the 

agency’s statutory responsibilities in 

connection with the proposed 

improvements. 

Scoping meetings will be advertised 

locally and are planned for the 

following major cities along the 

LOSSAN North rail corridor at the dates 

and times indicated: 

• Los Angeles: January 10, 2011; 5 

through 7 PM; Los Angeles County 

Metropolitan Transportation Authority 

(Metro) Headquarters—Board Room One 

Gateway Plaza, Los Angeles, CA. 

• Ventura: January 11, 2011; 5 

through 7 PM; Camarillo Public Library, 

4101 Las Posas Road, Camarillo, CA 

93010. 

• Santa Barbara: January 12, 2011; 5 

through 7 PM; Louise Lowry Davis 

Center, Lu Gilbert Room, 1232 De La 

Vina St., Santa Barbara, CA, 93101. 

• San Luis Obispo: January 13, 2011; 

5 through 7 PM; San Luis Obispo City/ 

County Public Library, Community 

Room, 995 Palm Street, San Luis 

Obispo, CA 93401. 

Persons interested in providing 

comments on the scope of the Tier-1 

EIR/EIS should do so by February 3, 

2011. Comments can be sent in writing 

to Ms. Melissa Elefante DuMond at the 

FRA address identified above. 

Comments may also be addressed to Ms. 

Lea Simpson of Caltrans at their address 

identified above. Information regarding 

the environmental review process and 

technical studies will be made available 

through Caltrans’ rail services Internet 

site: http://www.amtrakcalifornia.com/. 

Issued in Washington, DC, on December 

28, 2010. 

Karen Rae, 

Deputy Administrator, Federal Railroad 

Administration. 

[FR Doc. 2010–33146 Filed 1–3–11; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4910–06–P 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Saint Lawrence Seaway Development 

Corporation 

Advisory Board; Notice of Meeting 

Pursuant to section 10(a)(2) of the 

Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub. 

L. 92–463; 5 U.S.C. App. I), notice is 

hereby given of a meeting of the 

Advisory Board of the Saint Lawrence 

Seaway Development Corporation 

(SLSDC), to be held from 1 p.m. (EDT) 

on Monday, January 24, 2011, via 

conference call at the Corporation’s 

Administration Headquarters, Suite 

W32–300, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE., 

Washington, DC. The agenda for this 

meeting will be as follows: Opening 

Remarks; Consideration of Minutes of 

Past Meeting; Quarterly Report; Old and 

New Business; Closing Discussion; 

Adjournment. 

Attendance at the meeting is open to 

the interested public but limited to the 

space available. With the approval of 

the Administrator, members of the 

public may present oral statements at 

the meeting. Persons wishing further 

information should contact, not later 

than Wednesday, January 19, 2011, 

Anita K. Blackman, Chief of Staff, Saint 

Lawrence Seaway Development 

Corporation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, 


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