57650 Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 186 / Monday, September 25, 2000 / Notices

1 Documents transmitted by facsimile (FAX) or

electronic mail (e-mail) will not be accepted.

2FASB statements can be obtained by contacting

the FASB of the Financial Accounting Foundation

at 401 Merritt 7, P.O. Box 5116, Norwalk,

Connecticut 06856–5116. Information about FASB

statements can be found on the internet at: http:/

/www.rutgers.edu/accounting/raw/fasb.

3The STB is required by statute to ‘‘annually

determine which rail carriers are earning adequate

revenues.’’ 49 U.S.C. 10704(a)(3).

4See 49 CFR Part 1201 Instruction 1–9(f).

vehicle; hence, proper use of this feature

improves the child occupant’s

protection.

As stated above, vehicle owners are

not likely to be familiar with the

purpose, use, or installation of top

tethers in their vehicles, which may in

some instances contribute to their

misuse or nonuse of the top tether

entirely when proper use and

installation information is not provided.

This may be especially true when

specific information regarding the

vehicle’s tether anchor brackets is not

made obvious to them when referring to

their vehicle owner’s manual for

instruction.

Studies show that there is significant

misuse of child restraint systems in this

country. In part, this can be attributed

to parents and care givers who

improperly install child restraints in

their vehicles. It is imperative that

proper child restraint use and

installation instructions be provided in

a ‘‘step-by-step’’ fashion, particularly

when new features and/or installation

requirements are introduced, in as many

resources as possible. Therefore, the

agency cannot emphasize enough the

importance of providing parents and

care givers with specific information

regarding proper child restraint use and

installation.

The agency also does not agree with

Suzuki’s claim that because of

differences in child restraint system

designs, a vehicle owner’s manual can

only provide ‘‘general instructions.’’ We

note that we denied a petition filed by

the Alliance of Automobile

Manufacturers (Alliance) on April 17,

1999, which asked the agency to delete

the requirement in FMVSS No. 225 that

vehicle manufacturers provide ‘‘step-bystep’’ instructions, including diagrams,

for properly attaching a child restraint

tether hook to the vehicle anchor. The

agency denied this request on August

31, 1999, stating that ‘‘* * * Standard

No. 213 specifies the configuration and

geometry of the tether hook * * *’’

which would enable vehicle

manufacturers to develop their written

instructions with the tether hook design

in mind (64 FR 47566). The Alliance

submitted a subsequent petition for

reconsideration request on October 15,

1999, which requested that the agency

defer the effective date on the detailed

instruction requirement one year from

September 1, 1999. The agency denied

this request in a notice published July

31, 2000 (65 FR 46628).

Therefore, in consideration of the

foregoing, NHTSA has decided that the

applicant has not met its burden of

persuasion that the noncompliance it

describes is inconsequential to motor

vehicle safety, and it should not be

exempted from the notification and

remedy requirements of the statute.

Accordingly, its application is hereby

denied.

Authority: 49 U.S.C. 30118, 30120;

delegations of authority at 49 CFR 1.50 and

501.8.

Issued on: September 19, 2000.

Stephen R. Kratzke,

Associate Administrator for Safety

Performance Standards.

[FR Doc. 00–24551 Filed 9–22–00; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4910–59–P

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

[STB Ex Parte No. 634]

Consolidated Railroad Reporting

AGENCY: Surface Transportation Board,

DOT.

ACTION: Proposal to Require

Consolidated Financial Reporting by

Commonly Controlled Railroads.

SUMMARY: The Board intends, consistent

with Financial Accounting Standards

Board (FASB) Statement No. 94, to

require consolidated reporting by

commonly controlled U.S. railroads and

their U.S. railroad-related affiliates.

DATES: Carriers and other interested

parties may submit comments by

October 25, 2000.

ADDRESSES: An original plus 10 copies

of all comments, referring to STB Ex

Parte No. 634, must be sent to: Surface

Transportation Board, Office of the

Secretary, Case Control Unit, Attn: STB

Ex Parte No. 634, 1925 K Street, NW.,

Washington, DC 20423–0001. In

addition, parties must submit to the

Board, on 3.5-inch IBM-compatible

floppy diskettes (in, or convertible by

and into, WordPerfect 9.0 format), an

electronic copy of each such paper

document. The diskettes shall be clearly

labeled with the filer’s name and the

docket number of this proceeding, STB

Ex Parte No. 634. Any party may seek

a waiver from the electronic submission

requirement.1

Copies of the written comments will

be available from the Board’s contractor,

Da ̄-To-Da ̄ Office Solutions, 1925 K

Street, NW, Room 405, Washington, DC.

20423–0001, phone (202) 466–5530. The

comments will also be available for

viewing and self copying in the Board’s

Microfilm Unit, Room 755. All

pleadings submitted will be posted on

the Board’s website (www.stb.dot.gov).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Paul

A. Aguiar, (202) 565–1527. [Assistance

for the hearing impaired is available

through TDD services: 1–800–877–

8339.]

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: FASB is

the organization responsible for the

development of financial accounting

standards. FASB issues statements of

financial accounting standards that

provide guidance on proper accounting

procedures.2 Those pronouncements

typically become ‘‘Generally Accepted

Accounting Principles’’ or ‘‘GAAP.’’ The

Board, like most regulatory agencies,

generally follows GAAP.

FASB No. 94, Consolidation of All

Majority-owned Subsidiaries, which was

issued in 1987, requires the preparer of

financial statements to use consolidated

reporting for all majority-owned

subsidiaries unless control is temporary

or does not rest with the majority

owner. In Supplemental Reporting of

Information for Revenue Adequacy, 5

I.C.C.2d 65 (1988) (Supplemental

Reporting), our predecessor, the

Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC),

required railroads to use consolidated

reporting for all railroad and railroadrelated activities in conformance with

GAAP for ‘‘revenue adequacy’’

purposes.3 While Supplemental

Reporting was primarily concerned with

gathering data for the annual railroad

revenue adequacy determination, the

ICC did not specifically limit adoption

of consolidated reporting to only that

issue. However, as a practical matter,

over the past decade that decision has

been interpreted to require mandatory

consolidated reporting only for Annual

Report Form R–1, Schedule 250 (related

to revenue adequacy filings), and to

permit—but not require—consolidated

reporting for other R–1 schedules and

reports filed with the agency.4

We believe that we should adopt

FASB No. 94 (with some modifications)

and require reporting of all railroad and

railroad-related activities on a

consolidated basis for all regulatory

purposes. We believe that consolidated

data would provide more meaningful

and accurate information on major rail

systems operating in the United States.

Indeed, consolidated financial

statements are generally recognized as

being more meaningful than the

Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 186 / Monday, September 25, 2000 / Notices 57651

5Under GAAP, consolidated reporting is required

when an entity has greater than 50 percent (direct

or indirect) ownership of an affiliate.

6An affiliate is considered rail-related if it could

not exist but for the revenues derived from, or

support provided for, railroad operations. See

Supplemental Reporting, 5 I.C.C.2d at 67–68.

7 Indeed, when non-railroad-related activities are

included in carrier reports to facilitate complete

disclosure, the non-railroad-related activities

should be segregated and the information reported

separately.

8Railroads are classified according to their

revenues. A Class I railroad is one that has annual

revenues of at least $250 million, as indexed for

inflation. A Class II railroad has inflation-adjusted

annual revenues between $20 million and $250

million. And a Class III railroad has inflationadjusted revenues below $20 million. See 49 CFR

1201, General Instruction 1–1.

9The parent of the commonly controlled

railroads, whether that parent is a railroad or nonrailroad, would be required to file consolidated

financial reports. See 49 U.S.C. 721(b)

(authorization for the collection of data from

persons controlling a carrier). And if a family of

carriers were to attain Class I status, it would be

required to follow the Uniform System of Accounts

(49 CFR Part 1201) and to file a variety of reports

(49 CFR Part 1241–1248).

10Some Class I railroads currently file

consolidated reports with the STB.

separate statements of affiliated

companies. Furthermore, adherence to

FASB No. 94 for all regulatory reporting

purposes would be in keeping with our

general policy of following GAAP

unless such procedures are inconsistent

with our regulatory requirements.

Certain modifications to FASB No. 94

would seem to be appropriate for our

use, however. FASB No. 94 generally

requires consolidated reporting for all

majority-owned subsidiaries,5 whether

or not operating in the United States.

For our regulatory reporting purposes,

however, we would require

consolidated reports for only the

activities of commonly controlled U.S.

railroads and their U.S. railroad-related

affiliates.6 We would not expect data on

non-U.S. railroads and on non-railroad

related operations to be included in

consolidated reports filed with the

Board.7 Parties may comment on this

issue, and on whether there are

situations in which railroads under

common control ought not to be

required to report on a consolidated

basis (for example, where the railroads

under common control have no

connection with one another except for

a common parent).

We propose to require all railroads to

follow FASB No. 94 standards in their

reporting and to file reports on a

consolidated basis, beginning with

calendar year 2001 operations. This

approach could change the

‘‘classification’’ status of some

railroads,8 whose revenues would be

combined with the revenues of their

corporate siblings to determine whether

the railroads that are part of the

commonly controlled families should be

classified as Class I, Class II, or Class

III.9

Carriers and other interested parties

have 30 days following the issuance of

this notice to submit comments

regarding this proposal. After

considering the comments, we will

decide whether use of the FASB No. 94

standards will be mandated for all

railroad reporting.10

This action will not significantly

affect either the quality of the human

environment or the conservation of

energy resources.

Decided: September 18, 2000.

By the Board, Chairman Morgan, Vice

Chairman Burkes, and Commissioner

Clyburn.

Vernon A. Williams,

Secretary.

[FR Doc. 00–24583 Filed 9–22–00; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4915–00–P

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Surface Transportation Board

[STB Docket No. AB–55 (Sub–No. 580X)]

CSX Transportation, Inc.—

Abandonment Exemption—in

Muhlenberg and McLean Counties, KY

On September 5, 2000, CSX

Transportation, Inc. (CSXT) filed with

the Surface Transportation Board

(Board) a petition under 49 U.S.C. 10502

for exemption from the provisions of 49

U.S.C. 10903 to abandon a portion of its

line of railroad in the Midwest Region,

known as its Nashville Division, O&N

Nashville Subdivision, extending from

railroad Milepost 00D–186.35 near

Moorman in Muhlenberg County, KY, to

railroad Milepost 00D–193.83 near

Livermore in McLean County, KY, a

distance of 7.48 miles. The line

traverses United States Postal Service

ZIP Codes 42327 and 42352 and

includes no stations.

The line does not contain federally

granted rights-of-way. Any

documentation in the railroad’s

possession will be made available

promptly to those requesting it.

The interest of railroad employees

will be protected by the labor protective

conditions imposed in Oregon Short

Line R. Co.—Abandonment—Goshen,

360 I.C.C. 91 (1979).

By issuing this notice, the Board is

instituting an exemption proceeding

pursuant to 49 U.S.C. 10502(b). A final

decision will be issued by December 22,

2000.

Any offer of financial assistance

(OFA) under 49 CFR 1152.27(b)(2) will

be due no later than 10 days after

service of a decision granting the

petition for exemption. Each offer must

be accompanied by a $1,000 filing fee.

See 49 CFR 1002.2(f)(25).

All interested persons should be

aware that, following abandonment of

rail service and salvage of the line, the

line may be suitable for other public

use, including interim trail use. Any

request for a public use condition under

49 CFR 1152.28 or for trail use/rail

banking under 49 CFR 1152.29 will be

due no later than October 16, 2000. Each

trail use request must be accompanied

by a $150 filing fee. See 49 CFR

1002.2(f)(27).

All filings in response to this notice

must refer to STB Docket No. AB–55

(Sub-No. 580X) and must be sent to: (1)

Surface Transportation Board, Office of

the Secretary, Case Control Unit, 1925 K

Street, NW., Washington, DC 20423–

0001; and (2) Natalie S. Rosenberg, 500

Water Street-J150, Jacksonville, FL

32202. Replies to the CSXT petition are

due on or before October 16, 2000.

Persons seeking further information

concerning abandonment procedures

may contact the Board’s Office of Public

Services at (202) 565–1592 or refer to

the full abandonment or discontinuance

regulations at 49 CFR part 1152.

Questions concerning environmental

issues may be directed to the Board’s

Section of Environmental Analysis

(SEA) at (202) 565–1545. [TDD for the

hearing impaired is available at 1–800–

877–8339.]

An environmental assessment (EA) (or

environmental impact statement (EIS), if

necessary) prepared by SEA will be

served upon all parties of record and

upon any agencies or other persons who

commented during its preparation.

Other interested persons may contact

SEA to obtain a copy of the EA (or EIS).

EAs in these abandonment proceedings

normally will be made available within

60 days of the filing of the petition.

The deadline for submission of

comments on the EA will generally be

within 30 days of its service.

Board decisions and notices are

available on our website at

‘‘WWW.STB.DOT.GOV.’’

Decided: September 15, 2000.

By the Board, David M. Konschink,

Director, Office of Proceedings.

Vernon A. Williams,

Secretary.

[FR Doc. 00–24321 Filed 9–22–00; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4915–00–P