88488 Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 244 / Thursday, December 21, 2023 / Notices 

1UPRR’s petition is available at https://

www.regulations.gov/document/FRA-2016-0086- 

0024, and CN’s petition is available at https://

www.regulations.gov/document/FRA-2016-0086- 

0022. Notice of CN’s petition was previously 

published on November 16, 2022. See https://

www.regulations.gov/document/FRA-2016-0086- 

0021. 

2https://www.regulations.gov/document/FRA2016-0086-0016. 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Federal Railroad Administration 

[Docket No. FRA–2010–0043] 

Northern Indiana Commuter 

Transportation District’s Request To 

Amend Its Positive Train Control 

Safety Plan and Positive Train Control 

System 

AGENCY: Federal Railroad 

Administration (FRA), Department of 

Transportation (DOT). 

ACTION: Notice of availability and 

request for comments. 

SUMMARY: This document provides the 

public with notice that, on December 

12, 2023, the Northern Indiana 

Commuter Transportation District 

(NICD) submitted a request for 

amendment (RFA) to its FRA-approved 

Positive Train Control Safety Plan 

(PTCSP). As this RFA requests FRA’s 

approval of NICD’s proposed material 

modifications to its FRA-certified 

positive train control (PTC) system, FRA 

is publishing this notice and inviting 

public comment on the railroad’s RFA 

to its PTCSP. 

DATES: FRA will consider comments 

received by January 10, 2024. FRA may 

consider comments received after that 

date to the extent practicable and 

without delaying implementation of 

valuable or necessary modifications to a 

PTC system. 

ADDRESSES: 

Comments: Comments may be 

submitted by going to https://

www.regulations.gov and following the 

online instructions for submitting 

comments. 

Instructions: All submissions must 

include the agency name and the 

applicable docket number. The relevant 

PTC docket number for this host 

railroad is Docket No. FRA–2010–0043. 

For convenience, all active PTC dockets 

are hyperlinked on FRA’s website at 

https://railroads.dot.gov/researchdevelopment/program-areas/traincontrol/ptc/railroads-ptc-dockets. All 

comments received will be posted 

without change to https://

www.regulations.gov; this includes any 

personal information. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Gabe Neal, Staff Director, Signal, Train 

Control, and Crossings Division, 

telephone: 816–516–7168, email: 

Gabe.Neal@dot.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In general, 

title 49 United States Code (U.S.C.) 

section 20157(h) requires FRA to certify 

that a host railroad’s PTC system 

complies with title 49 Code of Federal 

Regulations (CFR) part 236, subpart I, 

before the technology may be operated 

in revenue service. Before making 

certain changes to an FRA-certified PTC 

system or the associated FRA-approved 

PTCSP, a host railroad must submit, and 

obtain FRA’s approval of, an RFA to its 

PTCSP under 49 CFR 236.1021. 

Under 49 CFR 236.1021(e), FRA’s 

regulations provide that FRA will 

publish a notice in the Federal Register 

and invite public comment in 

accordance with 49 CFR part 211, if an 

RFA includes a request for approval of 

a material modification of a signal or 

train control system. Accordingly, this 

notice informs the public that, on 

December 12, 2023, NICD submitted an 

RFA to its PTCSP for its Interoperable 

Electronic Train Management System, 

which seeks FRA’s approval to 

implement the Railcomm Back Office 

System and its new Computer Aided 

Dispatching program. That RFA is 

available in Docket No. FRA–2010– 

0043. 

Interested parties are invited to 

comment on NICD’s RFA to its PTCSP 

by submitting written comments or data. 

During FRA’s review of this railroad’s 

RFA, FRA will consider any comments 

or data submitted within the timeline 

specified in this notice and to the extent 

practicable, without delaying 

implementation of valuable or necessary 

modifications to a PTC system. See 49 

CFR 236.1021; see also 49 CFR 

236.1011(e). Under 49 CFR 236.1021, 

FRA maintains the authority to approve, 

approve with conditions, or deny a 

railroad’s RFA to its PTCSP at FRA’s 

sole discretion. 

Privacy Act Notice 

In accordance with 49 CFR 211.3, 

FRA solicits comments from the public 

to better inform its decisions. DOT posts 

these comments, without edit, including 

any personal information the 

commenter provides, to https://

www.regulations.gov, as described in 

the system of records notice (DOT/ALL– 

14 FDMS), which can be reviewed at 

https://www.transportation.gov/privacy. 

See https://www.regulations.gov/ 

privacy-notice for the privacy notice of 

regulations.gov. To facilitate comment 

tracking, we encourage commenters to 

provide their name, or the name of their 

organization; however, submission of 

names is completely optional. If you 

wish to provide comments containing 

proprietary or confidential information, 

please contact FRA for alternate 

submission instructions. 

Issued in Washington, DC. 

Carolyn R. Hayward-Williams, 

Director, Office of Railroad Systems and 

Technology. 

[FR Doc. 2023–28008 Filed 12–20–23; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4910–06–P 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Federal Railroad Administration 

[Docket Number FRA–2016–0086] 

Petition for Waiver of Compliance 

Under part 211 of title 49 Code of 

Federal Regulations (CFR), this 

document provides the public notice 

that by letter dated December 13, 2022, 

Union Pacific Railroad Company 

(UPRR) and Canadian National Railway 

Co. (CN) petitioned the Federal Railroad 

Administration (FRA) to join an existing 

waiver of compliance in Docket Number 

FRA–2016–0086.1 The existing relief in 

this docket provides CSX 

Transportation (CSX), BNSF Railway 

(BNSF), and Kansas City Southern 

Railway (now known as CPKC) 

conditional relief from certain 

provisions of the Federal railroad safety 

regulations contained at 49 CFR parts 

232 (Brake System Safety Standards for 

Freight and Other Non-Passenger Trains 

and Equipment; End-Of-Train Devices), 

and 229 (Railroad Locomotive Safety 

Standards). Specifically, the existing 

relief allows the railroads to test 

extending the air flow method (AFM) 

test intervals from 92 days to 184 days 

on locomotives equipped with the New 

York Air Brake (NYAB) CCB–II and 

Fastbrake air brake systems. 

UPRR and CN seek to form test waiver 

teams operating under the current test 

committee overseeing the relief in this 

docket to test UPRR’s 2,113 NYAB 

CCBII-equipped and 660 Fastbrakeequipped locomotives and CN’s 772 

NYAB CCB–2 equipped locomotives. 

This document also provides the 

public notice that BNSF, who is already 

a party to the relief in this docket, 

petitioned FRA to extend the existing 

relief and make the relief permanent.2

Subsequently, however, BNSF 

recognized existing implementation 

issues that could impact the validity of 

data being gathered under the terms of 

the existing relief in this docket and 


khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with NOTICES