Extension of Comment Period; Petition for Grandfathering of Non- Compliant Equipment National Railroad Passenger Corporation

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 5920. 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 released 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. 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

[[Page 73603]]

of the requested documents to analyze the documents and prepare

comments on the grandfather petition. FRA has agreed to this request

and has extended the comment period to the close of business on January

10, 2000. FRA expects that further extensions of the comment period

will not be necessary.

FRA has placed in the docket a copy of all the documents provided

to the FOIA requester. 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. 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 10, 2000 will be considered to the

extent possible.

Comments received after January 10, 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 December 23, 1999.

Grady C. Cothen, Jr.,

Deputy Associate Administrator for Safety Standards and Program

Development.

[FR Doc. 99-33926 Filed 12-29-99; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4910-06-M