[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 59 (Wednesday, March 28, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 14640-14641]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-5620]


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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.

Union Pacific Railroad Company

[Docket Number FRA-2006-25564]

    The Union Pacific Railroad Company (UPRR) seeks a test waiver 
(WAIVER) of 49 CFR 232.207 Class IA brake tests--1,000-mile inspection 
based on current technology of wayside detection systems presently 
deployed by UPRR. The waiver is sought for two ``cyclic'' coal trains 
from South Powder River Basin (SPRB) to the power plants in Pleasant 
Prairie, WI, and White Bluff, AR, respectively. These round trips are 
of loaded trains from SPRB to the power plants and empty trains from 
the power plants to SPRB.
    Since this is the first time that such a relief is requested based 
on detection and alert thresholds from wayside detection systems, the 
UPRR prepared a detailed ``Pilot'' test plan (latest revision dated 
February 6, 2007) with narrative describing, step-by-step, how the 
various requirements in 49 CFR 232.207 Class IA brake tests--1,000-mile 
inspection will be satisfied and verified by the wayside detection 
technology now being deployed by UPRR on the designated routes in the 
letter. UPRR states that emerging technology, such as the wayside 
detection technology, is a reliable, performance-based and cost 
effective asset that can be used to enhance and/or replace existing 
regulatory and rules compliance.
    UPRR believes that wayside detection using a proven wheel 
temperature detector can be used to automatically rank the braking 
health of each car to prioritize inspections and repairs. The brake 
performance detector will utilize a brake shoe and thermal scanning 
module (brake shoe presence and its position, and hot/cold wheels) to 
determine that all brake components are in proper working order. The 
cars with suspect braking force will have colder wheels requiring 
inspections for problems such as air brake leaks, inoperative valves, 
and non-functioning slack adjusters. Using such a performance-based 
approach to find, document and track suspect brake problems allows UPRR 
to significantly increase the ability of the maintenance organizations 
to find and repair brake systems. Though this results in an increased 
workload to support the higher maintenance standard, it will also 
result in higher reliability of freight cars. Braking problems on these 
cars would normally be found by ``visual-only'' methods at a later 
date, resulting in less reliability. Also, the ``visual-only'' methods 
are sometimes imposed at undesirable locations that significantly 
impede train operations.
    UPRR contends that predictive maintenance using wayside data is 
beneficial to manage freight car defects that cannot be effectively 
found or tracked with ``visual-only'' methods. Furthermore, exceedingly 
higher levels of safety and reliability can only be attained by 
modifying the existing paradigm for equipment and infrastructure 
maintenance by expanding the operational procedures to include 
performance measures. Current standards inadvertently limit reliability 
by the requirements to address every defect at the time it is 
discovered. This has the effect of causing all work to be reactive, 
which is an inherent impediment to further discovery. It is the UPRR's 
intention to perform more maintenance work and/or to work with its 
customers in joint efforts to perform the increased maintenance 
required at locations that are most complimentary to overall railroad 
productivity in order to offset the increased workload necessary to 
improve the overall network reliability of its train operations.
    The safety evaluation to assess the validity of the waiver will 
require extensive collection of pertinent data and consequent 
validation on the two routes specified during the proposed ``pilot'' 
test program. The duration of the ``pilot'' test as proposed by UPRR is 
one year. The ``Pilot'' project will provide for the establishment of a 
data baseline (with existing regulatory inspections) in which to 
compare the modified inspections and operations as requested by the 
petition. The task will require a comprehensive review of the 49 CFR 
232.207 Class IA brake tests' requirements: What requirements can be 
detected during the pre-departure inspection, which requirements may 
require regulatory modifications to provide alternate inspection 
criteria and determination if change toward performance-based 
regulations is justified or not.
    Pursuant to the receipt of the waiver letter and the revised and 
detailed test plan (latest revision dated February 6, 2007) from UPRR, 
FRA is hereby providing the public an opportunity to comment on the 
waiver.
    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

[[Page 14641]]

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 (FRA-2006-25564) 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. 
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 March 21, 2007.
Grady C. Cothen, Jr.,
Deputy Associate Administrator for Safety Standards and Program 
Development.
 [FR Doc. E7-5620 Filed 3-27-07; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-06-P