04-18194. 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.

St. Lawrence & Atlantic Railroad, Quebec, Inc.

The St. Lawrence & Atlantic Railroad, Quebec, Inc. has petitioned for a permanent waiver of compliance from the requirements of the Control of Alcohol and Drug Use, 49 CFR part 219, final rule effective June 11, 2004, on the expanded application of FRA alcohol and drug rules to its 6 to 8 foreign-railroad foreign-based employees who perform train service duties in the United States. Part 219 is FRA's alcohol and drug regulation that governs prohibitions, post-accident testing, testing for cause, identification of troubled employees, pre-employment testing, and random testing. The petitioner states that the United States operations of the railroad are only five miles longer than the ten-mile limit specified in the amended part 219 and that there are no affordable means of conducting random alcohol and drug testings in Island Pond, Vermont. The railroad, a Genesee & Wyoming Company is headquartered in Auburn, Maine. Train crews based in Richmond, Quebec cross the United States border at Norton, Vermont and proceed 15 miles into the United States to Island Pond, Vermont.

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 FRA-2001-11068) and must be submitted to the Docket Clerk, DOT Central Docket Management Facility, Room PL-401, Washington, DC 20590-0001. 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.

FRA wishes to inform all potential commenters that 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), or you may visit http://dms.dot.gov.

Issued in Washington, DC, on August 3, 2004.

Grady C. Cothen, Jr.,

Acting Associate Administrator for Safety.