[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 9 (Thursday, January 13, 2000)]
[Notices]
[Page 2223]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-784]
[[Page 2223]]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Railroad Administration
[Docket No. FRA-1999-6404]
Extension of Comment Period; Petition for Grandfathering of Non-
Compliant Equipment; National Railroad Passenger Corporation
On October 18, 1999, the National Railroad Passenger Corporation
(Amtrak) petitioned the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) for
grandfathering of non-compliant passenger equipment manufactured by
Renfe Talgo of America (Talgo) for use on rail lines between Vancouver,
British Columbia and Eugene, Oregon; between Las Vegas, Nevada and Los
Angeles, California; and between San Diego, California and San Luis
Obispo, California. Notice of receipt of such petition was published in
the Federal Register on November 2, 1999, at 64 FR 59230. Interested
parties were invited to comment on the petition before the end of the
comment period of December 2, 1999.
On December 2, 1999, FRA extended the comment period in this
proceeding until December 15, 1999, following a Freedom of Information
Act (FOIA) request that certain items in FRA files referenced in
Amtrak's petition be made available for review (see 64 FR 68195; Dec.
6, 1999). Talgo has objected to release of certain of the requested
information under FOIA exemption 4 (5 U.S.C. 552(b)(4)), which exempts
from release trade secrets and commercial or financial information
obtained from a person that is privileged or confidential. On December
15, 1999, FRA further extended the comment period in this proceeding
until 10:00 a.m. on December 27, 1999 to enable FRA to finalize its
response to the FOIA request, and to permit the responder time to
analyze the documents released by FRA (see 64 FR 71846; Dec. 22, 1999).
Unfortunately, processing the FOIA request has taken longer than
anticipated; FRA released documents on November 30, December 10, and
December 21. FRA has redacted from the documents released information
that is protected under FOIA exemption 4. The FOIA commenter has
appealed to the FRA Administrator FRA's decision to redact certain of
the information contained in the requested documents; FRA is processing
this appeal.
On December 13, the FOIA requester again asked FRA to further
extend the comment period so that the requester would have 15 days
after receipt of all of the requested documents to analyze the
documents and prepare comments on the grandfather petition. FRA agreed
to this request and on December 23, 1999, extended the comment period
to the close of business on January 10, 2000 (see 64 FR 73602; Dec. 30,
1999).
FRA has placed in the docket for this proceeding a copy of the
documents provided to the FOIA requester for this request. FRA has also
placed in the docket several documents that it received from Talgo that
are relevant to the Amtrak petition. Two of these documents contain
comments or corrections to the minutes of the June 17, 1999 meeting
between FRA, Amtrak and Talgo; the minutes of this meeting was one of
the documents released to the FOIA requester. Another document contains
weld information pertaining to the Talgo equipment. The remaining
documents contain design changes to the Talgo equipment requested by
FRA. Talgo has requested confidential treatment, under exemption 4 of
FOIA, for certain information in the documents. FRA has redacted from
the Talgo documents information that is protected by exemption 4.
On January 4, 2000, the FOIA requester made a further request for
documents related to Amtrak's petition. FRA is currently processing
this request; while a partial response was provided on January 6, 2000,
the full response will not be complete before January 10. On January 7,
the FOIA requester asked that FRA extend the comment period. FRA is
extending the comment period until January 31, 2000, to enable FRA time
to respond to the FOIA request in full, and to permit the responder
time to analyze the documents released by FRA. FRA expects that further
extensions of the comment period will not be necessary.
FRA will place in the docket a copy of the documents provided to
the FOIA requester for this further request. Unredacted versions of all
of the documents placed in the docket are available to agency staff and
will be used in the agency's review of the Amtrak petition to the
extent deemed necessary.
Comments received after January 31, 2000 will be considered to the
extent possible. Amtrak's petition, documents inserted in the docket,
and all written communications concerning this proceeding are available
for examination during regular business hours (9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.)
at DOT Central Docket Management Facility, Room PL-401 (Plaza Level),
400 Seventh, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20590-0001. All documents in the
public docket are also available for inspection and copying on the
Internet at the docket facility's Web site at http://dms.dot.gov.
Issued in Washington, DC on January 7, 2000.
Grady C. Cothen, Jr.,
Deputy Associate Administrator for Safety Standards and Program
Development.
[FR Doc. 00-784 Filed 1-12-00; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-06-P
