2010-19997. 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) has received a request for a waiver of compliance from 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.

Walden's Ridge Railroad Company; Heritage Railroad; Southern Appalachia Railway Museum

The Walden's Ridge Railroad Company (WRRC), Heritage Railroad (HR), and Southern Appalachia Railway Museum (SARM) of Roane County, Tennessee, seeks a waiver of compliance from Control of Alcohol and Drug Use, 49 CFR part 219 subparts D through G, which require a railroad to conduct reasonable suspicion alcohol and/or drug testing, pre-employment drug testing, random alcohol and drug testing, and to have voluntary referral and co-worker report policies. The three railroads combined have less than 16 hours of service employees, and the waiver is sought until such time as they jointly have 16 or more hours of service employees.

HR has contracted its freight operations out to WRRC, which has 3 part-time employees and historically handles 500 or fewer annual carloads. SARM has 6 hours of service employees who are part-time volunteers and who operate a passenger train on the HR, transporting about 5,000 passengers each year. The employees and volunteers are used interchangeably among the freight and passenger operations.

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-2010-0118) 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 document (or signing the document, 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; Page 19477) or at http://www.dot.gov/​privacy.html.

Issued in Washington, DC, on August 9, 2010.

Robert C. Lauby,

Deputy Associate Administrator for Regulatory and Legislative Operations.