[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 44 (Monday, March 7, 2016)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 11734-11737]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-04831]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Railroad Administration
49 CFR Part 222
[Docket No. FRA-2016-0010, Notice No. 1]
Use of Locomotive Horns at Public Highway-Rail Grade Crossings;
Notice of Safety Inquiry
AGENCY: Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), Department of
Transportation (DOT).
ACTION: Notice of safety inquiry.
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SUMMARY: FRA is conducting a retrospective review of its locomotive
train horn regulations in 49 CFR part 222. As part of its review, FRA
is soliciting public comment on whether FRA should modify, streamline,
or expand any requirements of FRA's locomotive train horn regulations
to reduce paperwork and other economic burdens on the rail industry and
States
[[Page 11735]]
and local authorities while still maintaining the highest standards of
safety. The list of topics at the end of this Notice highlights
specific areas on which FRA would particularly encourage the rail
industry, as well as State and local authorities to provide comment.
DATES: Written comments must be received by July 5, 2016. Comments
received after that date will be considered to the extent possible
without incurring additional expense or delay.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ron Ries, Staff Director, Highway-Rail
Crossing and Trespasser Programs Division, U.S. Department of
Transportation, Federal Railroad Administration, Office of Railroad
Safety, Mail Stop 25, West Building 3rd Floor, 1200 New Jersey Avenue
SE., Washington, DC 20590 (telephone: 202-493-6299; Kathryn Gresham,
Trial Attorney, U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Railroad
Administration, Office of Chief Counsel, Mail Stop 10, West Building
3rd Floor, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., Washington, DC 20590 (telephone:
202-493-6052); or Brian Roberts, Trial Attorney, U.S. Department of
Transportation, Federal Railroad Administration, Office of Chief
Counsel, Mail Stop 10, West Building 3rd Floor, 1200 New Jersey Avenue
SE., Washington, DC 20590 (telephone: 202-493-6052).
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Purpose of Retrospective Review
Under its general statutory rulemaking authority, FRA promulgates
and enforces rules as part of a comprehensive regulatory program to
address all areas of railroad safety. See 49 U.S.C. 20103 and 49 CFR
1.89. To provide for safety at public highway-rail grade crossings
(public grade crossings), FRA has issued specific regulations in 49 CFR
part 222 that generally require locomotive horn use at such crossings
except within authorized quiet zones established under the regulations.
Congress mandated these regulations in Public Law 103-440, codified as
Section 20153 to title 49 of the United States Code. This statute
required the Secretary of Transportation (whose authority in this area
had been delegated to the Federal Railroad Administrator) to issue
regulations on the use of locomotive horns at public grade crossings,
but gave the Secretary the authority to make reasonable exceptions.
Consistent with Executive Order 13563 (``Improving Regulation and
Regulatory Review'') and Executive Order 13610 (``Identifying and
Reducing Regulatory Burdens''), FRA continually reviews its regulations
and revises them as needed to: (1) Ensure the regulatory burden is not
excessive; (2) clarify the application of existing requirements and
remove requirements that are no longer necessary; and (3) keep pace
with emerging technology, changing operational realities, and safety
concerns. Therefore, through this Notice of Safety Inquiry, FRA seeks
to gather input from the rail industry and State and local authorities
on any regulatory burdens associated with 49 CFR part 222, while still
maintaining the highest level of safety at our Nation's public grade
crossings.
Executive Order 13563 requires agencies to periodically conduct
retrospective analyses of their existing rules to identify requirements
that may be outmoded, ineffective, insufficient, or excessively
burdensome and to modify, streamline, expand, or repeal any problematic
regulatory provisions identified during the review. Additionally,
Executive Order 13610 requires agencies to take continuing steps to
reassess regulatory requirements, and where appropriate, to streamline,
improve, or eliminate those requirements. In particular, Executive
Order 13610 emphasizes that agencies should prioritize ``initiatives
that will produce significant quantifiable monetary savings or
significant quantifiable reductions in paperwork burdens.'' Therefore,
FRA is specifically interested in receiving comments on how the agency
can reduce the regulatory burden on the regulated community and the
public in a way that would provide monetary savings or reduce paperwork
burdens without negatively impacting safety at public grade crossings.
Rulemaking Background on 49 CFR Part 222 (``Use of Locomotive Horns at
Public Highway-Rail Grade Crossings'')
FRA began the rulemaking process for 49 CFR part 222 on January 13,
2000, when it published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) in the
Federal Register addressing the use of locomotive horns at public grade
crossings. The rulemaking was mandated by 49 U.S.C. 20153, which
required the Secretary of Transportation to issue regulations that
required the use of locomotive horns at public grade crossings, but
gave the Secretary the authority to make reasonable exceptions. FRA
received approximately 3,000 comments in response to the NPRM.
Due to the substantial and wide-ranging public interest in the
NPRM, FRA conducted a series of twelve public hearings throughout the
United States. More than 350 people testified at these hearings.
On December 18, 2003, FRA published an Interim Final Rule in the
Federal Register (68 FR 70586). FRA could have proceeded directly to
the final rule stage of the rulemaking. However, FRA chose to issue an
interim final rule instead in order to give the public an opportunity
to comment on changes that had been made to the rule since the NPRM. In
addition, FRA held another public hearing in Washington, DC on February
4, 2004. By the close of the extended comment period, over 1,400
comments had been filed with the agency regarding the Interim Final
Rule.
FRA then published a final rule in the Federal Register on April
27, 2005 (70 FR 21844). After the final rule was published, FRA
received several petitions for reconsideration and associated letters
in support of the petitions. In addition, the Association of American
Railroads (AAR) submitted a petition for an Emergency Order. On August
17, 2006, FRA published amendments in the Federal Register which
amended and clarified the final rule in response to the petitions for
reconsideration (71 FR 47614). FRA denied AAR's petition for an
Emergency Order.
Since 2006, FRA has not issued any substantive revisions to 49 CFR
part 222. Therefore, FRA is soliciting public comments on any needed
revisions to the regulations as part of its retrospective review.
Overview of 49 CFR Part 222
FRA regulations require that engineers sound their locomotive horns
while approaching public grade crossings until the lead locomotive
fully occupies the crossing. See 49 CFR 222.21(a). In general, the
regulations require locomotive engineers to begin to sound the train
horn for a minimum of 15 seconds, and a maximum of 20 seconds, in
advance of public grade crossings. See 49 CFR 222.21(b)(2). Engineers
must also sound the train horn in a standardized pattern of two long,
one short and one long blast and the horn must continue to sound until
the lead locomotive or train car occupies the grade crossing. See 49
CFR 222.21(a). Additionally, the minimum sound level for the locomotive
horn is 96 dB(A), while the maximum sound level is 110 dB(A). See 49
CFR 229.129(a).
Research and years of experience show that the use of train horns,
[[Page 11736]]
flashing lights, and gates--in concert--at grade crossings are
extremely effective in preventing accidents and their resulting
injuries and deaths. The use of the locomotive horn while trains are
approaching public highway-rail grade crossings provides an important
safety warning to pedestrians and motorists who are on or approaching
the crossings. FRA conducted a nationwide study that showed there is a
66.8-percent increase in crossing collisions at crossings equipped with
automatic warning devices consisting of flashing lights and gates when
train horns are not routinely sounded.
Establishing a Quiet Zone
FRA regulations authorize only public authorities to establish
quiet zones. See 49 CFR 222.37(a). At a minimum, new quiet zones must
be at least one-half mile in length and contain at least one public
grade crossing (i.e., a location where a public highway, road, or
street crosses one or more railroad tracks at grade). See definition of
``quiet zone'' in 49 CFR 222.9 and 222.35(a). Every public grade
crossing in a quiet zone must be equipped at a minimum with active
grade crossing warning devices consisting of flashing lights and gates.
See 49 CFR 222.35(b).
If a public authority wants to establish a new quiet zone that will
include a pedestrian crossing, a private highway-rail grade crossing
that allows access to the public, or a private highway-rail grade
crossing that provides access to an active industrial or commercial
site, a diagnostic team (made up of representatives from the railroad,
relevant State agencies, the public authority, and FRA, if possible)
must evaluate the pedestrian or private highway-rail grade crossing and
the crossing must be equipped or treated in accordance with the
diagnostic team recommendations. See 49 CFR 222.25(b)(1) and 222.27(b).
In addition, FRA has interpreted 49 CFR part 222 to require that any
private highway-rail grade crossing or pedestrian crossing in a quiet
zone must be located either between the public grade crossings that
serve as quiet zone endpoints or within one-quarter mile of the quiet
zone endpoints.
Public authorities can establish quiet zones through either the
public authority designation process or the public authority
application process to FRA. See 49 CFR 222.39(a) and (b), respectively.
Because the absence of routine horn sounding at public grade crossings
increases the risk of a crossing collision, in most circumstances the
regulations require public authorities seeking to establish quiet zones
to mitigate additional risk. Public authorities that wish to reduce
existing risk levels within the proposed quiet zone can implement
certain specified pre-approved crossing improvements (i.e.,
Supplementary Safety Measures (SSMs)) to reduce the proposed quiet
zone's risk level to an acceptable level. These improvements include:
Roadway medians or channelization devices to discourage motorists from
driving around a lowered crossing gate; a four-quadrant gate system to
block all lanes of highway traffic; converting a two-way street into a
one-way street and installing crossing gates, and permanent or
temporary (nighttime) closure of the crossing to highway traffic. See
Appendix A to 49 CFR part 222. Public authorities that rely exclusively
on SSMs to reduce existing risk levels within the proposed quiet zone
to an acceptable level can establish quiet zones through the public
authority designation process (i.e., without specific FRA approval).
See 49 CFR 222.39(a). However, public authorities that want to
implement Alternative Safety Measures (ASMs), i.e., modified SSMs or
certain specified non-engineering crossing improvements, within a
proposed quiet zone must apply for FRA approval of the effectiveness
rate (i.e., the amount of risk that is mitigated by deployment of a
safety measure at a crossing) that will be assigned to the crossing
improvement(s).
As an alternative, communities may also choose to silence routine
locomotive horn sounding through the installation of wayside horns at
public grade crossings. Wayside horns are train-activated stationary
acoustic devices at grade crossings that are directed at highway
traffic as a one-for-one substitute for train horns.
During the new quiet zone establishment process, the regulations
require public authorities to provide a Notice of Intent to the
railroads that operate within the quiet zone, and to the State agencies
responsible for highway and grade crossing safety, to solicit comments
on the proposed quiet zone. See 49 CFR 222.43(a). However, a quiet zone
may not take effect until all the necessary safety measures have been
installed and are operational. See 49 CFR 222.43(d)(2). The regulations
also require the public authority to provide a Notice of Quiet Zone
Establishment to all affected parties before the quiet zone is
established, including all railroads that operate over crossings within
the proposed quiet zone, State agencies responsible for highway and
grade crossing safety, and FRA. See 49 CFR 222.43(a)(3). The Notice of
Quiet Zone Establishment must provide the date when the quiet zone will
take effect, which cannot be less than 21 days after the date on which
the Notice of Quiet Zone Establishment is mailed. See 49 CFR 222.43(d).
Request for Comments
While FRA solicits discussion and comments on all of 49 CFR part
222, we particularly encourage comments on the following questions:
How can FRA decrease the barriers local communities
encounter when establishing a quiet zone?
Should 49 CFR part 222 allow greater variances in highway-
rail configurations when determining safety calculations for local
communities establishing quiet zones? If so, what variances would be
appropriate?
Should FRA amend Appendix A to 49 CFR part 222 to include
common alternative grade crossing safety measures and emerging grade
crossing safety technologies? If so, what measures and technologies
would be appropriate?
What further actions can FRA take to mitigate train horn
noise impacts for local communities while not decreasing safety for
motorists and pedestrians?
How can FRA change how train horns are sounded at grade
crossings while not decreasing safety for motorists and pedestrians?
Should railroads be required to file an official opinion
of support or opposition to the establishment of a new quiet zone?
Should train speed be a factor that is considered when
establishing a new quiet zone?
Should there be an online process for submitting quiet
zone notices, applications, and required paperwork, in whole or in
part?
Should FRA be a required recipient of the Notice of Intent
to establish a quiet zone?
Should FRA provide additional guidance on how to measure
the length of a quiet zone? If so, what guidance would be helpful?
Should FRA develop a process to address modifications to
grade crossings within an existing quiet zone? If so, please describe
what process would be helpful?
[[Page 11737]]
Should FRA require diagnostic reviews for all grade
crossings within proposed quiet zones instead of requiring them only
for pedestrian (pathway) grade crossings and private grade crossings
that allow access to the public or which provide access to active
industrial or commercial sites?
How should FRA address safety measures that no longer meet
the requirements for SSMs or ASMs?
Issued in Washington, DC, on February 29, 2016.
Sarah E. Feinberg,
Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2016-04831 Filed 3-4-16; 8:45 am]
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