Petition for Waiver of Compliance, 46681-46682 [2013-18500]

Agencies

• Federal Railroad Administration
• DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 148 (Thursday, August 1, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 46681-46682]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-18500]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Railroad Administration

[Docket Number FRA-2013-0068]


Petition for Waiver of Compliance

    In accordance with Part 211 of Title 49 Code of Federal Regulations 
(CFR), this document provides the public notice that by a document 
dated June 18, 2013, the National Railroad Passenger Corporation 
(Amtrak) has petitioned the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) for a 
waiver of compliance from certain provisions of the Federal railroad 
safety regulations contained at 49 CFR Part 214, Subpart C, Roadway 
Worker Protection. FRA assigned the petition Docket Number FRA-2013-
0068.
    In its petition, Amtrak requests a temporary waiver from 49 CFR 
Part 214, Subpart C, seeking relief from the requirement to provide 
Roadway Worker Protection (RWP) for contractors and contractor 
employees (herein referred to as ``workers'') using hand tools within 
the 4-foot fouling envelope of a track in publicly accessible areas, 
specifically passenger station platforms. The waiver is sought for the 
express purposes of performing manual snow removal with hand tools, 
which extend into the tactile warning area of a passenger platform (if 
equipped with a tactile warning strip), or other warning area beyond 
and including a similarly positioned and contrasting painted line (if 
not equipped), while the worker's person is behind the area and in a 
position of safety. The tactile warning area is the area beyond and 
including a 24-inch-wide strip of truncated domes that is installed 
along the full length of the public-use areas of a passenger platform 
(pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards) and 
that is generally positioned approximately 24 inches from the outside 
of the nearest rail. The request for relief from the regulation is 
limited to platforms outside of the Northeast Corridor at stations for 
which Amtrak is not the operating railroad.
    Title 49 CFR 214.7 defines fouling a track as ``the placement of an 
individual or an item of equipment in such proximity to a track that 
the individual or equipment could be struck by a moving train or on-
track equipment, or in any case is within four feet of the field side 
of the near running rail.'' In the case of a platform, 4 feet from the 
field side of the rail generally encompasses the space between the 
outside of the nearest rail and the platform, plus the width of a 24-
inch-wide, ADA-required, tactile strip.
    Currently, workers performing passenger station snow-removal 
activities, which breach the tactile (or painted) warning area with 
hand tools, must be provided with on-track safety in accordance with 
the RWP rule, while pedestrians and the riding public may move 
throughout the system in the very same areas without restriction.
    Contractor workers performing snow removal on passenger service 
infrastructure not owned by Amtrak are not qualified to provide on-
track safety. Thus, workers may remove snow from platform areas behind 
the tactile (or paint-delineated) warning area, but must not remove 
snow in the area of the tactile (or paint-delineated) warning area 
without first establishing on-track safety in accordance with the RWP 
rule. As a result of this requirement, hazardous conditions on 
platforms remain unaddressed. Amtrak believes that the proposed 
alternate snow removal protection program (alternate program), used for 
specific snow-removal activities, will permit workers to address unsafe 
platform conditions from a safe location in a safe and timely manner, 
without workers being struck by a train, while occupying the area of 
the platform behind the tactile warning strip or contrasting painted 
line.
    Slippery or snow-covered platform surfaces pose a significant risk 
to passengers, especially if such conditions exist close to the 
platform's edge. This potential risk continues if the surfaces remain 
slippery or snow-covered. In contrast, the potential risk to workers is 
intermittent depending on the presence of a train. Considering the 
differing levels of potential risk from both time-based and quantity-
based perspectives, risk to passengers is significantly greater than 
the potential risk to workers.
    Throughout the 2012-2013 winter season, with the permission of FRA, 
Amtrak conducted a pilot test program of the alternate program used for 
specific snow-removal activities (see FRA-2011-0077). Amtrak believes 
that there was an improvement to the safety of the riding public during 
the pilot program and believes this improvement will continue in the 
form of faster response times, reduced hazardous walking conditions, 
and reduced passenger incidents, should the waiver be granted. Amtrak 
submits that it is logical to assume that removing snow and ice from 
the tactile or paint-delineated warning areas of passenger station 
platforms would result in a reduction in slips, trips, and falls due to 
inclement weather at station platforms. Further, there were no 
incidents meeting this criteria in the stations that were part of the 
pilot program.
    Amtrak also believes that no negative impact to the safety of 
workers removing snow will occur under the plan, based upon examination 
of publicly available data regarding passenger and employee injuries 
and fatalities on railroad passenger station platforms in addition to 
the data obtained throughout the pilot test program.
    Under Federal Transit Administration oversight, no consistent RWP 
requirements exist nationwide. Transit agencies are permitted to 
perform snow-removal activities at station platforms in accordance with 
protection requirements that the transit agency itself adopts. Many 
rail transit agencies have adopted policies similar to the practices 
that Amtrak proposes in this waiver, with no appreciable difference in 
worker injuries and fatalities on station platforms when compared with 
FRA data.
    Amtrak believes and has observed throughout the pilot test program 
that the alternate program, as proposed, will provide an equivalent 
level of safety to the current requirements under RWP,

[[Page 46682]]

while improving the safety of the riding public. As such, Amtrak 
believes that relief from the application of fouling protection 
required when manually removing snow from a publicly accessible station 
platform is ``in the public interest and consistent with railroad 
safety.''
    To ensure that workers using the alternate program to remove snow 
from platforms are not exposed to undue risk, the following conditions 
are proposed by Amtrak in its alternate program:
    1. Workers are not permitted to use powered equipment, such as snow 
blowers, to clear the tactile edge area of snow without appropriate on-
track safety in accordance with the RWP rule.
    2. Any need to breach the strip or to come bodily within the 4-foot 
clearance envelope to push snow from the platform will require on-track 
safety in accordance with the RWP rule.
    3. Amtrak will train workers to be constantly alert for the 
movement of trains and to remain in areas of the platform that are 
inaccessible to trains.
    4. The Amtrak training program for the alternate program details 
the conditions under which on-track safety is needed, in accordance 
with the RWP rule, as well as the explicit conditions under which 
workers may occupy the station areas behind the tactile edge to remove 
snow.
    5. The training program explains the purpose of a good-faith 
challenge as well as how to execute a challenge if work needs to be 
performed that requires on-track safety in accordance with the RWP rule 
or is otherwise thought to be unsafe by the worker.
    6. Workers must demonstrate an understanding of the types of 
conditions that would require protection above and beyond that which 
would be permitted under this proposal, as well as the methods to 
execute a good-faith challenge.
    7. Workers must hold a job briefing before any work starts.
    8. Workers removing snow from station platforms under the alternate 
program will not be permitted to work in single-man crews.

In addition, Amtrak's alternate program will incorporate all of the 
criteria that FRA required Amtrak to adopt in the pilot test program 
conducted in 2012 and 2013.
    Under the alternate program procedures, workgroups would be 
required to appoint a safety monitor. The safety monitor would be 
required to conduct the job briefing and to maintain a means to contact 
Amtrak personnel as necessary. Safety monitors would observe all work 
for compliance with the requirements of the protection procedures and 
would ensure that all work would stop in the presence of a train.
    Amtrak does not seek a waiver from RWP requirements when a worker 
is fouling the track in order to remove snow from areas other than the 
platform, such as clearing an inner-track walkway or when a worker is 
required to bodily breach the tactile edge. Many of the prior incidents 
within the industry occurred under precisely the same conditions under 
which Amtrak's proposed procedures would still mandate full RWP 
protection.
    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 
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 and may be submitted by any of the following 
methods:
     Web site: https://www.regulations.gov. Follow the 
online instructions for submitting comments.
     Fax: 202-493-2251.
     Mail: Docket Operations Facility, U.S. 
Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., W12-140, 
Washington, DC 20590.
     Hand Delivery: 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., Room 
W12-140, Washington, DC 20590, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday 
through Friday, except Federal Holidays.
    Communications received by September 16, 2013 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 downloading on the Internet at the docket 
facility's Web site at https://www.regulations.gov.
    Anyone is able to search the electronic form of any written 
communications and comments received into any of our dockets by the 
name of the individual submitting the comment (or signing the document, 
if submitted on behalf of an association, business, labor union, etc.). 
See https://www.regulations.gov/#!privacyNotice for the privacy notice 
of regulations.gov or interested parties may review the U.S. Department 
of Transportation's complete Privacy Act Statement in the Federal 
Register published on April 11, 2000 (65 FR 19477).

Robert C. Lauby,
Deputy Associate Administrator for Regulatory and Legislative 
Operations.
[FR Doc. 2013-18500 Filed 7-31-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-06-P