E8-13882. 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.

National Railroad Passenger Corporation

The National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) seeks a waiver of compliance from the Passenger Equipment Safety Standards, 49 CFR Part 238.309, and the Locomotive Safety Standards, 49 CFR Parts 229.27 and 229.29, as they pertain to the requirements to clean, repair and test airbrake equipment associated with twenty-one HHP-8 electric locomotives equipped with Computer Controlled Brake (CCB-KE-3.9) manufactured by Knorr Brake Corporation.

The twenty-one locomotives are operated over Amtrak's North East Corridor and maintained by Amtrak, fifteen of these locomotives are owned by Amtrak, and five are owned by the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA). Amtrak requests allowing the brake system periodic maintenance to go beyond the 5-year period (1,840 days) previously granted by waiver for Amtrak (FRA-2001-10596) and for MTA (FRA-2007-28611). Amtrak feels that because the KE-3.9 brake system employs real time self monitoring of the locomotive brake performance, age exploration for periodic brake valve maintenance is appropriate.

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 (e.g., Waiver Petition Docket Number 2008-0065) and may be submitted by any of the following methods:

• Web site: http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online instructions for submitting comments.
• Fax: [phone].
• Mail: Docket Operations Facility, U.S. Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE., W12-140, Washington, DC 20590.
• Hand Delivery: 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE., Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal Holidays.

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://www.regulations.gov.

Anyone is able to search the electronic form of any written communications and 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).

Issued in Washington, DC on June 16, 2008.

Grady C. Cothen, Jr.,

Deputy Associate Administrator for Safety Standards and Program Development.