Federal Railroad Administration 2017 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In response to a petition for reconsideration of a final rule, FRA proposes to amend its regulations (Training, Qualification, and Oversight for Safety-Related Railroad Employees) by delaying certain implementation dates an additional year. FRA previously delayed the regulations' implementation dates for one year in a final rule published May 3, 2017 (May 2017 Final Rule).

Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), this notice announces that FRA is forwarding the Information Collection Requests (ICRs) abstracted below to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and comment. The ICRs describe the information collections and their expected burden. On September 13, 2017, FRA published a notice providing a 60-day period for public comment on the ICRs.

On August 12, 2016, FRA published a final rule requiring commuter and intercity passenger railroads to develop and implement a system safety program (SSP) to improve the safety of their operations. On February 10, 2017, FRA stayed the SSP final rule's requirements until March 21, 2017, and extended the stay until May 22, 2017, June 5, 2017, and then December 4, 2017. FRA is issuing this final rule to extend that stay until December 4, 2018.

FRA announces a meeting of the RSAC, a Federal Advisory Committee that develops recommendations on railroad safety regulations and other railroad safety issues through a consensus process. The RSAC System Safety Task Force and Passenger Safety Working Group will meet October 30, 2017, to discuss petitions for reconsideration, and comments received in response to the petitions for reconsideration on the System Safety Program (SSP) final rule issued August 12, 2016, requiring commuter and intercity passenger railroads to develop and implement an SSP to improve the safety of their operations.

This SNPRM provides interested parties the opportunity to comment on the proposed revisions to the FHWA and FTA joint regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and Section 4(f) requirements. The FHWA, FRA, and FTA (hereafter referred to as ``the Agencies'') propose these revisions after the enactment of the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, which requires a rulemaking to address programmatic approaches in environmental reviews and makes other changes to existing law that should be addressed in a rulemaking. In this SNPRM the Agencies also propose to add FRA to regulations governing environmental impact and related procedures and the parks, recreation areas, wildlife and waterfowl refuges, and historic site, making those regulations FRA's NEPA implementing procedures and FRA's Section 4(f) implementing regulations, respectively. This SNPRM proposes to modify the FHWA/FTA Environmental Impact and Related Procedures due to changes to the environmental review process made by the FAST Act and to modify the Parks, Recreation Areas, Wildlife and Waterfowl Refuges, and Historic Sites regulations due to new exceptions created by the FAST Act. Lastly, the Agencies request comments regarding the current FHWA and FTA definition of ``existing operational right-of-way'' in their respective categorical exclusion sections. The Agencies seek comments on the proposals in this document.