51858 Federal Register / Vol. 70, No. 168 / Wednesday, August 31, 2005 / Notices 

ACTION: Notice of public meeting. 

SUMMARY: FMCSA announces the 

second in a series of public meetings 

concerning the implementation of the 

North American Standard for Protection 

Against Shifting or Falling Cargo. On 

September 27, 2002, FMCSA published 

a final rule revising its regulations 

concerning protection against shifting 

and falling cargo for commercial motor 

vehicles (CMVs) engaged in interstate 

commerce. Motor carriers operating in 

the United States were given until 

January 1, 2004, to comply with the new 

regulations. On September 23, 2004, 

Canada’s Council of Ministers 

Responsible for Transportation and 

Highway Safety approved a new 

National Safety Code Standard for cargo 

securement. Full implementation of the 

new cargo securement requirements in 

Canada began in the summer of 2005. 

The purpose of this meeting is second 

in a series of meetings to discuss the 

process for ensuring the consistent 

interpretation of the harmonized cargo 

securement standards by FMCSA and 

the Canadian Provinces, and of the 

issues raised by enforcement agencies 

and motor carriers in the U.S., and to 

address potential implementation issues 

for the Canadian Provinces, and motor 

carriers operating in Canada. 

DATES: The meeting will be held on 

September 29–30, 2005. The meeting 

will begin at 1 p.m. and end at 5 p.m 

on September 29, and continue from 9 

a.m. until 5 p.m. on September 30. 

ADDRESSES: The meeting will be held at 

the Beau Rivage Resort, 875 Beach 

Boulevard, Biloxi, Mississippi. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. 

Larry W. Minor, Director of the Office of 

Bus and Truck Standards and 

Operations (MC–PS), 202–366–4009, 

Federal Motor Carrier Safety 

Administration, 400 Seventh Street SW., 

Washington, DC 20590. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background 

On September 27, 2002 (67 FR 61212), 

FMCSA published a final rule revising 

its regulations concerning protection 

against shifting and falling cargo for 

CMVs operated in interstate commerce 

(49 CFR part 393). The new cargo 

securement standards are based on the 

North American Cargo Securement 

Standard Model Regulations, reflecting 

the results of a multi-year 

comprehensive research program to 

evaluate the then-current U.S. and 

Canadian cargo securement regulations; 

the motor carrier industry’s best 

practices; and recommendations 

presented during a series of public 

meetings involving U.S. and Canadian 

industry experts, Federal, State and 

Provincial enforcement officials, and 

other interested parties. The Agency 

indicated that the intent of the 

rulemaking is to reduce the number of 

crashes caused by cargo shifting on or 

within, or falling from, CMVs operating 

in interstate commerce, and to 

harmonize to the greatest extent 

practicable U.S., Canadian and Mexican 

cargo securement regulations. Motor 

carriers were given until January 1, 

2004, to comply with the new 

regulations. 

Maintaining Uniformity Between U.S. 

and Canadian Cargo Securement 

Standards 

FMCSA believes it is necessary to 

continue working with U.S. and 

Canadian industry experts, Federal, 

State and Provincial enforcement 

officials, and other interested parties to 

maintain to the greatest extent 

practicable, harmonization of U.S. and 

Canadian cargo securement standards. A 

major part of this effort includes 

uniformity in interpreting the meaning 

of the requirements adopted by the U.S. 

and Canada. While there are some 

differences between certain provisions 

of the regulations adopted by FMCSA 

and Canada’s National Safety Code 

Standard 10, most of the contents of the 

model regulations have been adopted, or 

will soon be adopted, by almost all 

jurisdictions in the U.S. and Canada. To 

ensure consistency in the interpretation 

and enforcement of the requirements, 

FMCSA is working with its partners in 

Canada to develop a process for sharing 

information about requests for 

interpretation, and exchanging technical 

information that would be helpful to the 

regulatory agencies in developing 

responses to such requests. FMCSA 

would also work with its partners in 

Canada to ensure that interpretations are 

made available to all interested parties 

in an efficient and timely manner. 

As part of the process for ensuring 

consistent interpretations of the 

harmonized cargo securement 

regulations, FMCSA is holding this 

public meeting to provide all interested 

parties the opportunity to participate in 

the discussions between the Agency and 

its Canadian counterparts about 

interpretations and other 

implementation issues. This is the 

second in a series of public meetings on 

this subject. The first meeting was held 

April 21–22 in Albuquerque, New 

Mexico (70 FR 16884, April 1, 2005). 

Minutes from the Albuquerque meeting, 

and the presentations made by 

participants have been placed in the 

docket listed at the beginning of this 

notice. The minutes and presentations 

from the Biloxi meeting and any future 

cargo securement implementation issues 

meetings will be placed in this docket. 

Future public meetings will be 

announced in the Federal Register. 

Meeting Information 

The meeting will be held on 

September 29–30, 2005, at the Beau 

Rivage Resort, 875 Beach Boulevard, 

Biloxi, Mississippi. The meeting is 

scheduled from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on 

September 29, and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

on September 30. The meeting is being 

held in connection with the Commercial 

Vehicle Safety Alliance’s (CVSA) 2005 

Fall Workshop. Attendance for the cargo 

securement meeting is free of charge 

and open to all interested parties. 

However, anyone interested in attending 

the sessions and committee meetings of 

the CVSA’s 2005 Fall Workshop must 

register with the CVSA and pay the 

appropriate registration fee. For further 

information about registration for other 

sessions or meetings of the CVSA’s 2005 

Fall Workshop please contact the CVSA 

at (202) 775–1623. 

Issued on: August 24, 2005. 

Warren E. Hoemann, 

Deputy Administrator. 

[FR Doc. 05–17276 Filed 8–30–05; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4910–EX–P 

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. 

Indiana Northeastern Railroad 

Company (Docket Number FRA–2005–

21963) 

The Indiana Northeastern Railroad 

Company (IN) seeks a waiver of 

compliance from the provisions of the 

Track Safety Standards, 49 CFR 

213.233(c), that requires a twice-weekly 

track inspection when operating 

passenger trains. 

The IN, a shortline railroad operating 

in the states of Indiana, Ohio, and 

Michigan, has commenced weekend 

excursion passenger train operation 

Federal Register / Vol. 70, No. 168 / Wednesday, August 31, 2005 / Notices 51859 

1LAJ is a wholly owned subsidiary of BNSF 

Railway Company. 

2The Board will grant a stay if an informed 

decision on environmental issues (whether raised 

by a party or by the Board’s Section of 

Environmental Analysis (SEA) in its independent 

investigation) cannot be made before the 

exemption’s effective date. See Exemption of Outof-Service Rail Lines, 5 I.C.C.2d 377 (1989). Any 

request for a stay should be filed as soon as possible 

so that the Board may take appropriate action before 

the exemption’s effective date. 

3Each OFA must be accompanied by the filing 

fee, which currently is set at $1,200. See 49 CFR 

1002.2(f)(25). 

necessitating a twice weekly track 

inspection required under Section 

213.233(c). In its petition, the IN states 

that train activity increases towards the 

end of the week and track maintenance 

is generally scheduled at the beginning 

of the week when maximum staffing is 

available. 

With the weekend excursions 

operating, the track supervisor traverses 

the line on each Monday to inspect the 

track that the passenger train will be 

operating over the upcoming weekend. 

Midweek the supervisor resumes the 

regular inspection of the entire line. The 

petitioner believes that the second 

inspection of the excursion trackage is 

redundant and adds another day to the 

inspection activity without any benefit. 

Interested parties are invited to 

participate in these proceedings by 

submitting their 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 communication concerning these 

proceedings should identify the 

appropriate docket number (e.g., Waiver 

Petition Docket Number 2005–21963), 

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. 

Issued in Washington, DC on August 25, 

2005. 

Grady C. Cothen, Jr., 

Deputy Associate Administrator for Safety 

Standards and Program Development. 

[FR Doc. 05–17277 Filed 8–30–05; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4910–06–P 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Surface Transportation Board 

[STB Docket No. AB–682X] 

The Los Angeles Junction Railway—

Abandonment Exemption—in Los 

Angeles County, CA 

The Los Angeles Junction Railway 

(LAJ) 1 has filed a notice of exemption 

under 49 CFR 1152 subpart F—Exempt 

Abandonments to abandon a 0.46-mile 

line of railroad between LAJ milepost 

2.21 and LAJ milepost 2.67, in 

Maywood, Los Angeles County, CA. The 

line traverses United States Postal 

Service Zip Code 90270. 

LAJ has certified that: (1) No local 

traffic has moved over the line for at 

least 2 years; (2) there is no overhead 

traffic on the line; (3) no formal 

complaint filed by a user of rail service 

on the line (or by a state or local 

government entity acting on behalf of 

such user) regarding cessation of service 

over the line either is pending with the 

Surface Transportation Board or with 

any U.S. District Court or has been 

decided in favor of complainant within 

the 2-year period; and (4) the 

requirements of 49 CFR 1105.7 

(environmental reports), 49 CFR 1105.8 

(historic reports), 49 CFR 1105.11 

(transmittal letter), 49 CFR 1105.12 

(newspaper publication), and 49 CFR 

1152.50(d)(l) (notice to governmental 

agencies) have been met. 

As a condition to this exemption, any 

employees adversely affected by the 

abandonment shall be protected under 

Oregon Short Line R. Co.—

Abandonment—Goshen, 360 I.C.C. 91 

(1979). To address whether this 

condition adequately protects affected 

employees, a petition for partial 

revocation under 49 U.S.C. 10502(d) 

must be filed. 

Provided no formal expression of 

intent to file an offer of financial 

assistance (OFA) has been received, this 

exemption will be effective on 

September 30, 2005, unless stayed 

pending reconsideration. Petitions to 

stay that do not involve environmental 

issues,2 formal expressions of intent to 

file an OFA under 49 CFR 

1152.27(c)(2),3 and trail use/rail banking 

requests under 49 CFR 1152.29 must be 

filed by September 12, 2005. Petitions to 

reopen or requests for public use 

conditions under 49 CFR 1152.28 must 

be filed by September 20, 2005, with: 

Surface Transportation Board, 1925 K 

Street, NW., Washington, DC 20423–

0001. 

A copy of any petition filed with the 

Board should be sent to LAJ’s 

representative: Michael Smith, 311 S. 

Wacker Dr., Suite 3000, Chicago, IL 

60606. 

If the verified notice contains false or 

misleading information, the exemption 

is void ab initio. 

LAJ has filed environmental and 

historic reports which address the 

effects, if any, of the abandonment on 

the environment and historic resources. 

SEA will issue an environmental 

assessment (EA) by September 2, 2005. 

Interested persons may obtain a copy of 

the EA by writing to SEA (Room 500, 

Surface Transportation Board, 

Washington, DC 20423–0001) or by 

calling SEA, at (202) 565–1539. 

[Assistance for the hearing impaired is 

available through the Federal 

Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1–

800–877–8339.] Comments on 

environmental and historic preservation 

matters must be filed within 15 days 

after the EA becomes available to the 

public. 

Environmental, historic preservation, 

public use, or trail use/rail banking 

conditions will be imposed, where 

appropriate, in a subsequent decision. 

Pursuant to the provisions of 49 CFR 

1152.29(e)(2), LAJ shall file a notice of 

consummation with the Board to signify 

that it has exercised the authority 

granted and fully abandoned the line. If 

consummation has not been effected by 

LAJ’s filing of a notice of consummation 

by August 31, 2006, and there are no 

legal or regulatory barriers to 

consummation, the authority to 

abandon will automatically expire. 

Board decisions and notices are 

available on our Web site at http:// 

www.stb.dot.gov. 

Decided: August 22, 2005. 

By the Board, David M. Konschnik, 

Director, Office of Proceedings. 

Vernon A. Williams, 

Secretary. 

[FR Doc. 05–17140 Filed 8–30–05; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4915–01–P