03-30101. Petition for Waiver of Compliance

In accordance with part 211 of Title 49 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), notice is hereby given that the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) received a request for a waiver of compliance with certain requirements of its safety standards. The individual petition is described below, including the party seeking relief, the regulatory provisions involved, the nature of the relief being requested, and the petitioner's arguments in favor of relief.

Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railroad Company

The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railroad Company (BNSF) seeks a waiver of compliance with the Locomotive Safety Standards, 49 CFR 229.23, 229.27 and 229.29, as they pertain to the requirement to maintain the locomotive repair record form FRA 6180.49A, commonly referred to as the Blue Card, in the cab of their locomotives. If granted, BNSF would maintain locomotive inspection information in a secure BNSF data base. The data base would be maintained as the required office copy of form FRA 6180.49A. A computer generated form, which contains all information currently contained on the required FRA 6180.49A, would be maintained on board the locomotive. In place of required signatures of persons performing inspections and tests, BNSF employees would be provided with a unique login identification number and a secure password to access the system and verify performance of inspections. In place of signatures, computer generated reports would block print the name of the employee performing a required inspection and block print the employee's supervisor who is certifying that all inspections have been made and all repairs were completed. Required filing of the previous inspection record will be maintained through the data base.

Interested parties are invited to participate in these proceedings by submitting written views, data, or comments. FRA does not anticipate scheduling a public hearing in connection with these proceedings since the facts do not appear to warrant a hearing. If any interested party desires an opportunity for oral comment, they should notify FRA, in writing, before the end of the comment period and specify the basis for their request.

All communications concerning these proceedings should identify the appropriate docket number (FRA-2003-16440) and must be submitted to the Docket Clerk, DOT Docket Management Facility, Room PL-401 (Plaza Level), 400 7th Street, SW., Washington, DC 20590. Communications received within 45 days of the date of this notice will be considered by FRA before final action is taken. Comments received after that date will be considered as far as practicable. All written communications concerning these proceedings are available for examination during regular business hours (9 a.m.-5 p.m.) at the above facility. 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.

Anyone is able to search the electronic form of all comments received into any of our dockets by the name of the individual submitting the comment (or signing the comment, if submitted on behalf of an association, business, labor union, etc.). You may review DOT's complete Privacy Act Statement in the Federal Register published on April 11, 2000 (Volume 65, Number 70; Pages 19477-78). The Statement may also be found at http://dms.dot.gov.

Issued in Washington, DC on November 26, 2003.

Grady C. Cothen, Jr.,

Deputy Associate Administrator for Safety Standards and Program Development.