Federal Railroad Administration December 2016 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

On October 18, 2016, under its emergency processing procedures, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approved the information collection activities associated with FRA's Railworthiness Directive No. 2016-01. This 6-month approval expires on April 30, 2017. Since OMB's approval of the information collection activities associated with Railworthiness Directive No. 2016-01, on November 18, 2016, FRA issued a revised Railworthiness Directive which supersedes the original Directive. FRA is now seeking approval for the revised information collection activities and associated burden listed below. Before submitting this information collection request (ICR) to OMB for approval, FRA is soliciting public comment on specific aspects of the activities, which are identified in this notice.

This rule amends FRA's regulations on railroad police officers to implement certain provisions of the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act. Consistent with the FAST Act, FRA is amending its regulations to allow: Railroads to hire contractors as railroad police officers; railroad police officers to transfer from one state to another without immediately needing to be commissioned or certified in the new state; and a state to recognize an officer's training at another state's recognized police academy or at a Federal law enforcement training center as meeting the state's basic police officer certification or commissioning requirements.

FRA is proposing to amend its regulations for passenger equipment safety standards, which currently provide for passenger rail service in a shared right-of-way under two separate tiers of safety standards: Tier I (speeds up to 125 miles per hour (mph)) and Tier II (speeds up to 150 mph). Consistent with the regulations' approach supporting interoperable passenger rail service by sharing the right- of-way, this proposed rulemaking would add a new tier of safety standards (Tier III) to facilitate the safe implementation of interoperable high-speed passenger rail service at speeds up to 220 mph. However, Tier III standards would require operations at speeds above 125 mph to be in an exclusive right-of-way without grade crossings. The proposal also would establish crashworthiness and occupant protection performance requirements in the alternative to those currently specified for Tier I passenger trainsets. Adopting the proposed alternative crashworthiness and occupant protection requirements would remove regulatory barriers, allowing a more open U.S. rail market, incorporating recent technological designs. In addition, the proposal would increase from 150 mph to 160 mph the maximum speed FRA's existing regulations allow for passenger equipment that complies with FRA's Tier II standards.