55452 Federal Register / Vol. 70, No. 182 / Wednesday, September 21, 2005 / Notices 

1Ex Parte No. 492, Montana Rail Link, Inc., and 

Wisconsin Central Ltd., Joint Petition For 

Rulemaking With Respect To 49 CFR 1201, 8 I.C.C. 

2d 625 (1992), raised the revenue classification 

level for Class I railroads from $50 million to $250 

million (1991 dollars), effective for the reporting 

year beginning January 1, 1992. The Class II 

threshold was also revised to reflect a rebasing from 

$10 million (1978 dollars) to $20 million (1991 

dollars). 

or other shipping document serving a 

similar purpose and containing the 

information required by section 

172.202, 172.203, and 172.204. A 

shipping paper with emergency 

response information must accompany 

most hazardous materials shipments 

and be readily available at all times 

during transportation. It serves as the 

principal source of information 

regarding the presence of hazardous 

materials, identification, quantity, and 

emergency response procedures. 

Shipping papers also serve as the source 

of information for compliance with 

other requirements, such as the 

placement of rail cars containing 

different hazardous materials in trains, 

prevent the loading of poisons with 

foodstuffs, the separation of 

incompatible hazardous materials, and 

the limitation of radioactive materials 

that may be transported in a vehicle or 

aircraft. Shipping papers and emergency 

response information serve as a means 

of notifying transport workers that 

hazardous materials are present. Most 

importantly, shipping papers serve as a 

principal means of identifying 

hazardous materials during 

transportation emergencies. Firefighters, 

police, and other emergency response 

personnel are trained to obtain the DOT 

shipping papers and emergency 

response information when responding 

to hazardous materials transportation 

emergencies. The availability of 

accurate information concerning 

hazardous materials being transported 

significantly improves response efforts 

in these types of emergencies. 

It is necessary that hazardous 

materials and emergency response 

information be displayed on shipping 

papers in a uniform manner to ensure 

accuracy and consistency. DOT 

regulations require that when hazardous 

materials and materials not subject to 

the HMR are described on the same 

shipping paper, the hazardous materials 

entries required by section 172.202 and 

those additional entries that may be 

required by section 172.203 must be 

entered first, or entered in a color that 

clearly contrasts with any description 

on the shipping paper of materials not 

subject to the requirements, or 

highlighted, or identified by the entry 

with an ‘‘x’’ in an HM column opposite 

the hazardous material entry. The 

subsidiary hazard class or subsidiary 

division number(s) must also be entered 

in parentheses following the primary 

hazard class or division number on 

shipping papers under § 172.202. In 

addition, the number and type of 

packagings must also be indicated on 

shipping papers such as drums, boxes, 

jerricans, etc. as part of the basic 

shipping description. 

Affected Public: Shippers and carriers 

of hazardous materials in commerce. 

Recordkeeping: 

Number of Respondents: 250,000. 

Total Annual Responses: 6,337,500. 

Total Annual Burden Hours: 63,309. 

Frequency of collection: On occasion. 

Issued in Washington, DC, on September 

15, 2005. 

Susan Gorsky, 

Acting Director, Office of Hazardous 

Materials Standards. 

[FR Doc. 05–18805 Filed 9–20–05; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4910–60–P 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Surface Transportation Board 

Indexing the Annual Operating 

Revenues of Railroads 

This Notice sets forth the annual 

inflation adjusting index numbers 

which are used to adjust gross annual 

operating revenues of railroads for 

classification purposes. This indexing 

methodology will insure that regulated 

carriers are classified based on real 

business expansion and not from the 

effects of inflation. Classification is 

important because it determines the 

extent of reporting for each carrier. 

The railroad’s inflation factors are 

based on the annual average Railroad’s 

Freight Price Index. This index is 

developed by the Bureau of Labor 

Statistics (BLS). This index will be used 

to deflate revenues for comparison with 

established revenue thresholds. 

The base year for railroads is 1991. 

The inflation index factors are presented 

as follows: 

RAILROAD FREIGHT INDEX

Year Index Deflator 

1991 ......................................................................................................................................................................... 409.50 1 100.00 

1992 ......................................................................................................................................................................... 411.80 99.45 

1993 ......................................................................................................................................................................... 415.50 98.55 

1994 ......................................................................................................................................................................... 418.80 97.70 

1995 ......................................................................................................................................................................... 418.17 97.85 

1996 ......................................................................................................................................................................... 417.46 98.02 

1997 ......................................................................................................................................................................... 419.67 97.50 

1998 ......................................................................................................................................................................... 424.54 96.38 

1999 ......................................................................................................................................................................... 423.01 96.72 

2000 ......................................................................................................................................................................... 428.64 95.45 

2001 ......................................................................................................................................................................... 436.48 93.73 

2002 ......................................................................................................................................................................... 445.03 91.92 

2003 ......................................................................................................................................................................... 454.33 90.03 

2004 ......................................................................................................................................................................... 473.41 86.40 

Effective Date: January 1, 2004. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Scott Decker, (202) 565–1531. [Federal 

Information Relay Service (FIRS) for the 

hearing impaired: 1–800–877–8339]. 

By the Board, Leland L. Gardner, Director, 

Office of Economics, Environmental 

Analysis, and Administration. 

Vernon A. Williams, 

Secretary. 

[FR Doc. 05–18840 Filed 9–20–05; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4915–00–P