[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 148 (Thursday, August 1, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 46681-46682]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-18500]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Railroad Administration
[Docket Number FRA-2013-0068]
Petition for Waiver of Compliance
In accordance with Part 211 of Title 49 Code of Federal Regulations
(CFR), this document provides the public notice that by a document
dated June 18, 2013, the National Railroad Passenger Corporation
(Amtrak) has petitioned the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) for a
waiver of compliance from certain provisions of the Federal railroad
safety regulations contained at 49 CFR Part 214, Subpart C, Roadway
Worker Protection. FRA assigned the petition Docket Number FRA-2013-
0068.
In its petition, Amtrak requests a temporary waiver from 49 CFR
Part 214, Subpart C, seeking relief from the requirement to provide
Roadway Worker Protection (RWP) for contractors and contractor
employees (herein referred to as ``workers'') using hand tools within
the 4-foot fouling envelope of a track in publicly accessible areas,
specifically passenger station platforms. The waiver is sought for the
express purposes of performing manual snow removal with hand tools,
which extend into the tactile warning area of a passenger platform (if
equipped with a tactile warning strip), or other warning area beyond
and including a similarly positioned and contrasting painted line (if
not equipped), while the worker's person is behind the area and in a
position of safety. The tactile warning area is the area beyond and
including a 24-inch-wide strip of truncated domes that is installed
along the full length of the public-use areas of a passenger platform
(pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards) and
that is generally positioned approximately 24 inches from the outside
of the nearest rail. The request for relief from the regulation is
limited to platforms outside of the Northeast Corridor at stations for
which Amtrak is not the operating railroad.
Title 49 CFR 214.7 defines fouling a track as ``the placement of an
individual or an item of equipment in such proximity to a track that
the individual or equipment could be struck by a moving train or on-
track equipment, or in any case is within four feet of the field side
of the near running rail.'' In the case of a platform, 4 feet from the
field side of the rail generally encompasses the space between the
outside of the nearest rail and the platform, plus the width of a 24-
inch-wide, ADA-required, tactile strip.
Currently, workers performing passenger station snow-removal
activities, which breach the tactile (or painted) warning area with
hand tools, must be provided with on-track safety in accordance with
the RWP rule, while pedestrians and the riding public may move
throughout the system in the very same areas without restriction.
Contractor workers performing snow removal on passenger service
infrastructure not owned by Amtrak are not qualified to provide on-
track safety. Thus, workers may remove snow from platform areas behind
the tactile (or paint-delineated) warning area, but must not remove
snow in the area of the tactile (or paint-delineated) warning area
without first establishing on-track safety in accordance with the RWP
rule. As a result of this requirement, hazardous conditions on
platforms remain unaddressed. Amtrak believes that the proposed
alternate snow removal protection program (alternate program), used for
specific snow-removal activities, will permit workers to address unsafe
platform conditions from a safe location in a safe and timely manner,
without workers being struck by a train, while occupying the area of
the platform behind the tactile warning strip or contrasting painted
line.
Slippery or snow-covered platform surfaces pose a significant risk
to passengers, especially if such conditions exist close to the
platform's edge. This potential risk continues if the surfaces remain
slippery or snow-covered. In contrast, the potential risk to workers is
intermittent depending on the presence of a train. Considering the
differing levels of potential risk from both time-based and quantity-
based perspectives, risk to passengers is significantly greater than
the potential risk to workers.
Throughout the 2012-2013 winter season, with the permission of FRA,
Amtrak conducted a pilot test program of the alternate program used for
specific snow-removal activities (see FRA-2011-0077). Amtrak believes
that there was an improvement to the safety of the riding public during
the pilot program and believes this improvement will continue in the
form of faster response times, reduced hazardous walking conditions,
and reduced passenger incidents, should the waiver be granted. Amtrak
submits that it is logical to assume that removing snow and ice from
the tactile or paint-delineated warning areas of passenger station
platforms would result in a reduction in slips, trips, and falls due to
inclement weather at station platforms. Further, there were no
incidents meeting this criteria in the stations that were part of the
pilot program.
Amtrak also believes that no negative impact to the safety of
workers removing snow will occur under the plan, based upon examination
of publicly available data regarding passenger and employee injuries
and fatalities on railroad passenger station platforms in addition to
the data obtained throughout the pilot test program.
Under Federal Transit Administration oversight, no consistent RWP
requirements exist nationwide. Transit agencies are permitted to
perform snow-removal activities at station platforms in accordance with
protection requirements that the transit agency itself adopts. Many
rail transit agencies have adopted policies similar to the practices
that Amtrak proposes in this waiver, with no appreciable difference in
worker injuries and fatalities on station platforms when compared with
FRA data.
Amtrak believes and has observed throughout the pilot test program
that the alternate program, as proposed, will provide an equivalent
level of safety to the current requirements under RWP,
[[Page 46682]]
while improving the safety of the riding public. As such, Amtrak
believes that relief from the application of fouling protection
required when manually removing snow from a publicly accessible station
platform is ``in the public interest and consistent with railroad
safety.''
To ensure that workers using the alternate program to remove snow
from platforms are not exposed to undue risk, the following conditions
are proposed by Amtrak in its alternate program:
1. Workers are not permitted to use powered equipment, such as snow
blowers, to clear the tactile edge area of snow without appropriate on-
track safety in accordance with the RWP rule.
2. Any need to breach the strip or to come bodily within the 4-foot
clearance envelope to push snow from the platform will require on-track
safety in accordance with the RWP rule.
3. Amtrak will train workers to be constantly alert for the
movement of trains and to remain in areas of the platform that are
inaccessible to trains.
4. The Amtrak training program for the alternate program details
the conditions under which on-track safety is needed, in accordance
with the RWP rule, as well as the explicit conditions under which
workers may occupy the station areas behind the tactile edge to remove
snow.
5. The training program explains the purpose of a good-faith
challenge as well as how to execute a challenge if work needs to be
performed that requires on-track safety in accordance with the RWP rule
or is otherwise thought to be unsafe by the worker.
6. Workers must demonstrate an understanding of the types of
conditions that would require protection above and beyond that which
would be permitted under this proposal, as well as the methods to
execute a good-faith challenge.
7. Workers must hold a job briefing before any work starts.
8. Workers removing snow from station platforms under the alternate
program will not be permitted to work in single-man crews.
In addition, Amtrak's alternate program will incorporate all of the
criteria that FRA required Amtrak to adopt in the pilot test program
conducted in 2012 and 2013.
Under the alternate program procedures, workgroups would be
required to appoint a safety monitor. The safety monitor would be
required to conduct the job briefing and to maintain a means to contact
Amtrak personnel as necessary. Safety monitors would observe all work
for compliance with the requirements of the protection procedures and
would ensure that all work would stop in the presence of a train.
Amtrak does not seek a waiver from RWP requirements when a worker
is fouling the track in order to remove snow from areas other than the
platform, such as clearing an inner-track walkway or when a worker is
required to bodily breach the tactile edge. Many of the prior incidents
within the industry occurred under precisely the same conditions under
which Amtrak's proposed procedures would still mandate full RWP
protection.
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 and may be submitted by any of the following
methods:
Web site: http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the
online instructions for submitting comments.
Fax: 202-493-2251.
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 by September 16, 2013 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 downloading 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 document,
if submitted on behalf of an association, business, labor union, etc.).
See http://www.regulations.gov/#!privacyNotice for the privacy notice
of regulations.gov or interested parties may review the U.S. Department
of Transportation's complete Privacy Act Statement in the Federal
Register published on April 11, 2000 (65 FR 19477).
Robert C. Lauby,
Deputy Associate Administrator for Regulatory and Legislative
Operations.
[FR Doc. 2013-18500 Filed 7-31-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-06-P