Department of Transportation September 22, 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Department of Transportation published in the Federal Register of August 23, 2006, a final rule (effective September 22, 2006) which added state-licensed or certified marriage and family therapists to the list of credentialed professionals eligible to serve as substance abuse professionals under subpart O of 49 CFR part 40. The final rule also made a series of technical amendments to its drug and alcohol testing procedural rule. This notice corrects a misspelling in the final rule and adds text that was discussed in the preamble but omitted in the rule text.

On August 28, 2006, the Board served a decision to update its computation of the railroad industry's cost of capital for 2005. The composite after-tax cost-of-capital rate for 2005 is found to be 12.2%, based on a current cost of debt of 5.36%; a cost of common equity capital of 15.18%; and a capital structure mix comprised of 30.41% debt and 69.59% common equity. The cost-of-capital finding made in this proceeding will be used in a variety of Board proceedings.

On July 27, 2006, FRA published a notice announcing its intent to conduct a series of open meetings throughout the United States, in cooperation with appropriate State agencies, to consider issues related to the safety of private highway-rail grade crossings. This notice indicated that the first of these meetings would be held August 30, 2006, in Fort Snelling, Minnesota. Notice No. 2 announces that FRA has scheduled subsequent meetings to be held September 27, 2006, in Raleigh, North Carolina; October 26, 2006, in San Francisco, California; and December 6, 2006, in New Orleans, Louisiana. At each open meeting, FRA intends to solicit oral statements from private crossing owners, railroads and other interested parties on issues related to the safety of private highway-rail grade crossings, which will include, but will not be limited to, current practices concerning the responsibility for safety at private grade crossings, the adequacy of warning devices at private crossings, and the relative merits of a more uniform approach to improving safety at private crossings. FRA has also opened a public docket on these issues so that interested parties may submit written comments for public review and consideration.