Federal Railroad Administration August 2021 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA) and its implementing regulations, this notice announces that FRA is forwarding the Information Collection Request (ICR) abstracted below to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and comment. The ICR describes the information collection and its expected burden. On May 17, 2021, FRA published a notice providing a 60-day period for public comment on the ICR.

The Surface Transportation Project Delivery Program (STPD Program), often referred to as the ``NEPA Assignment Program,'' allows a State to assume FRA's responsibilities for Federal environmental review, consultation, and compliance under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and other Federal environmental laws, for railroad projects. In accordance with the July 23, 2019, memorandum of understanding (section 327 MOU) between FRA and the California High- speed Rail Authority (CHSRA), CHSRA assumed the environmental review process, in lieu of FRA. The STPD Program mandates annual audits by FRA for the first four years of a State's involvement in the STPD Program, ensuring CHSRA's compliance with program requirements. This notice finalizes FRA's findings of the first-year audit of CHSRA participation in the STPD Program.

This document provides the public notice that on July 23, 2021, Canadian National Railway (CN) petitioned the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to transition from phase 2 to phase 3 of a previously approved Test Program and associated temporary suspension of some visual track inspections. The Test Program is designed to test track inspection technologies (i.e., an autonomous track geometry measurement system) and new operational approaches to track inspections (i.e., combinations of autonomous inspection and traditional visual inspections).

This document provides the public notice that on July 19, 2021, Norfolk Southern Railway Company (NS) petitioned the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to extend an existing temporary suspension of some visual track inspections to allow for a continuation of a previously approved Test Program designed to test track inspection technologies (i.e., an autonomous track geometry measurement system) and new operational approaches to track inspections (i.e., combinations of autonomous inspection and traditional visual inspections).