March 14, 2013, FR Notice (30-Day)

Federal Register / Vol. 78, No. 50 / Thursday, March 14, 2013 / Notices
Mexico City; Louisville, Kentucky–
Guadalajara; Louisville, Kentucky–
Mexico City; Louisville, Kentucky–
Monterrey; San Antonio, Texas–
Guadalajara; and San Antonio, Texas–
Monterrey.
Barbara J. Hairston,
Acting Program Manager, Docket Operations,
Federal Register Liaison.
[FR Doc. 2013–05880 Filed 3–13–13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910–9X–P

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Aviation Administration
Research, Engineering and
Development Advisory Committee
Federal Aviation
Administration, DOT.

AGENCY:

Notice of Meeting. Pursuant to
section 10(A) (2) of the Federal
Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L. 92–
463; 5 U.S.C. App. 2), notice is hereby
given of a meeting of the FAA Research,
Engineering and Development (R,E&D)
Advisory Committee.

ACTION:

Name: Research, Engineering &
Development Advisory Committee.
Time and Date: April 24—8:30 a.m. to
4:00 p.m.
Place: Federal Aviation
Administration, 800 Independence
Avenue SW.—Round Room (10th
Floor), Washington, DC 20591.
Purpose: The meeting agenda will
include receiving from the Committee
guidance for FAA’s research and
development investments in the areas of
air traffic services, airports, aircraft
safety, human factors and environment
and energy. Attendance is open to the
interested public but seating is limited.
Persons wishing to attend the meeting
or obtain information should contact
Gloria Dunderman at (202) 267–8937 or
[email protected]. Members of
the public may present a written
statement to the Committee at any time.

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Issued in Washington, DC on March 8,
2013.
Catherine A. Bigelow,
Manager, Research and Development
Management Division.
[FR Doc. 2013–05908 Filed 3–13–13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910–13–P

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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Railroad Administration
[Docket No. FRA 2013–0002–N–5]

Proposed Agency Information
Collection Activities; Comment
Request
Federal Railroad
Administration (FRA), DOT.
ACTION: Notice and Request for
Comments.
AGENCY:

In compliance with the
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this
notice announces that the Information
Collection Request (ICR) abstracted
below has been forwarded to the Office
of Management and Budget (OMB) for
review and comment. The ICR describes
the nature of the information collection
and their expected burden. The Federal
Register notice with a 60-day comment
period soliciting comments on the
following collection of information was
published on December 31, 2012.
DATES: Comments must be submitted on
or before April 15, 2013.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr.
Robert Brogan, Office of Safety,
Planning and Evaluation Division, RRS–
21, Federal Railroad Administration,
1200 New Jersey Ave. SE., Mail Stop 17,
Washington, DC 20590 (telephone: (202)
493–6292), or Ms. Kimberly Toone,
Office of Information Technology, RAD–
20, Federal Railroad Administration,
1200 New Jersey Ave. SE., Mail Stop 35,
Washington, DC 20590 (telephone: (202)
493–6132). (These telephone numbers
are not toll-free.)
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995
(PRA), Public Law 104–13, Section 2,
109 Stat. 163 (1995) (codified as revised
at 44 U.S.C. 3501–3520), and its
implementing regulations, 5 CFR part
1320, require Federal agencies to issue
two notices seeking public comment on
information collection activities before
OMB may approve paperwork packages.
44 U.S.C. 3506, 3507; 5 CFR 1320.5,
1320.8(d)(1), 1320.12. On December 31,
2012, FRA published a 60-day notice in
the Federal Register soliciting comment
on the ICR for which the agency was
seeking OMB approval. 77 FR 77181.
FRA received no comments in response
to this notice.
Before OMB decides whether to
approve a proposed collection of
information, it must provide 30 days for
public comment. 44 U.S.C. 3507(b); 5
CFR 1320.12(d). Federal law requires
OMB to approve or disapprove
paperwork packages between 30 and 60
days after the 30 day notice is
SUMMARY:

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published. 44 U.S.C. 3507 (b)–(c); 5 CFR
1320.12(d); see also 60 FR 44978, 44983,
Aug. 29, 1995. OMB believes that the 30
day notice informs the regulated
community to file relevant comments
and affords the agency adequate time to
digest public comments before it
renders a decision. 60 FR 44983, Aug.
29, 1995. Therefore, respondents should
submit their respective comments to
OMB within 30 days of publication to
best ensure having their full effect. 5
CFR 1320.12(c); see also 60 FR 44983,
Aug. 29, 1995.
The summary below describes the
nature of the information collection
request (ICR) and the expected burden,
and is being submitted for clearance by
OMB as required by the PRA.
Title: Electronic Device Distraction
(EDD) Survey.
OMB Control Number: 2130–NEW.
Type of Request: Regular approval of
a new collection of information.
Affected Public: Railroad Employees.
Abstract: Operating railroad
equipment while being distracted by the
use of electronic devices (e.g., phones,
game consoles, personal computers,
etc.) is known to be a factor in some
accidents and suspected of being the
cause of many others in the railroad
industry. It is also known that such use
is dangerous, as evidenced by several
high profile accidents in the railroad
industry, and by research on distraction
in other transportation modes.
Consequently, the Department of
Transportation (DOT) and the Federal
Railroad Administration (FRA) have a
keen interest in devising counter
measures to reduce the incidence of
electronic device distraction (EDD) in
the railroad industry. In order to devise
effective countermeasures, FRA believes
a survey of select rail employees would
be extremely beneficial. Therefore, FRA
proposes to sample railroad employees
spread across the jobs of conductors,
engineers, signalmen, maintenance of
way, car repair personnel, machinists,
and supervisors. The agency’s interest is
shared by rail labor and management
representatives, who are strongly
supporting this survey and cooperating
in its administration. All involved
realize that effective counter measures
to EDD must be based on a trustworthy
understanding of the following: (1) Who
is engaged in EDD, (2) under what
circumstances they use these devices,
(3) which devices are used, (4) reasons
for use, and (5) frequency of use for each
kind of device. Effective interventions
cannot be designed, implemented, or
evaluated without accurate information
on these topics. The proposed survey is
designed to provide this information,
first as a baseline, and, in four

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Federal Register / Vol. 78, No. 50 / Thursday, March 14, 2013 / Notices

subsequent years, as a way of tracking
and evaluating change. For reasons of
effectiveness and efficiency, the survey
will be conducted primarily via the
Web, augmented as needed with email
communications.
Form Number(s): FRA F 6180.158
Annual Estimated Burden Hours:
1,245 hours.
Addressee: Send comments regarding
this information collection to the Office
of Information and Regulatory Affairs,
Office of Management and Budget, 725
Seventeenth Street, NW., Washington,
DC, 20503, Attention: FRA Desk Officer.
Comments may also be sent
electronically via email to the Office of
Information and Regulatory Affairs
(OIRA) at the following address:
[email protected]
Comments are invited on the
following: Whether the proposed
collection of information is necessary
for the proper performance of the
functions of the Department, including
whether the information will have
practical utility; the accuracy of the
Department’s estimate of the burden of
the proposed information collection;
ways to enhance the quality, utility, and
clarity of the information to be
collected; and ways to minimize the
burden of the collection of information
on respondents, including the use of
automated collection techniques or
other forms of information technology.
A comment to OMB is best assured of
having its full effect if OMB receives it
within 30 days of publication of this
notice in the Federal Register.
Authority: 44 U.S.C. 3501–3520.
Issued in Washington, DC on March 8,
2013 .
Michael Logue,
Associate Administrator for Administration,
Federal Railroad Administration.
[FR Doc. 2013–05835 Filed 3–13–13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910–06–P

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Railroad Administration
Safety Advisory 2013–02; Low-Speed,
Wheel-Climb Derailments of Passenger
Equipment With ‘‘Stiff’’ Suspension
Systems
Federal Railroad
Administration (FRA), Department of
Transportation (DOT).
ACTION: Notice of Safety Advisory.

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AGENCY:

FRA is issuing Safety
Advisory 2013–02 to alert railroads and
other industry members about lowspeed, wheel-climb derailments of
certain passenger equipment designs

SUMMARY:

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having ‘‘stiff’’ suspension systems.
These derailments have occurred when
such equipment was negotiating track
with a high degree of curvature and
crosslevel variations (commonly
referred to as ‘‘track warp’’) that were
still within the limits set forth in FRA’s
Track Safety Standards. The findings
from the derailment investigations
conducted by FRA and the respective
railroads highlight the need to ensure
that passenger equipment suspension
systems are suitable for moredemanding track conditions found in
low-speed operating environments. To
avoid similar low-speed, wheel-climb
derailments, this notice recommends
that railroads and other industry
members evaluate the trackworthiness
of certain passenger equipment to
determine whether the suspension
systems meet truck-equalization
industry standards, prevent wheel
climb, and control static wheel-load
distribution under the conditions and
within the limits described in the
notice; and take appropriate action to
address the derailment tendency, if any,
of the evaluated equipment. In order to
minimize the risk of suspension spring
failure, this notice also recommends
that railroads and other industry
members assessing the fatigue life of
suspension springs and their
corresponding maintenance intervals
use a fatigue-evaluation load equal to
the equipment’s full-capacity loading
conditions.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Michelle Muhlanger, Deputy Regional
Administrator, Region 1, Office of
Railroad Safety, FRA, 55 Broadway
Street, Cambridge, MA 02142, telephone
(617) 494–2630; Gary Fairbanks, Staff
Director, Motive Power and Equipment
Division, Office of Railroad Safety, FRA,
1200 New Jersey Avenue SE.,
Washington, DC 20590, telephone (202)
493–6322; or Anna Nassif Winkle, Trial
Attorney, Office of Chief Counsel, FRA,
1200 New Jersey Avenue SE.,
Washington, DC 20590, telephone (202)
493–6166.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
In response to increased performance
objectives, such as higher operating
speeds and increased passenger
capacity, passenger equipment
suspension systems are becoming
stiffer 1 and more sophisticated, and
may be approaching design limits. In
many cases, engineering tradeoffs are
made to meet performance objectives
1 Suspension systems that allow lower
suspension deflection for the same load (e.g., due
to the use of less flexible springs).

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and satisfy specific system constraints
(e.g., clearances for existing tunnels or
other infrastructure). An example is
equipment using non-linear vertical
springs, which provide variable stiffness
as the vehicle load increases from AW0
(i.e., empty vehicle ready to run) to
AW3 (i.e., vehicle with full-seated and
full-standee load). Such tradeoffs have
resulted in certain newer designs of
equipment being operated over moredemanding track geometry conditions
with lower margins of safety, from a
derailment perspective, than older
equipment designs. The static weight
distribution and marginal wheel-load
equalization that are characteristic of
such suspension system designs can
lead to wheel unloading. This is of
particular concern because FRA has
determined that the combination of
high, lateral curving forces and wheel
unloading is a major contributing factor
to low-speed,2 wheel-climb derailment
tendency. Similar wheel-climb
derailments are not as likely to occur at
higher speeds on higher classes of track
because track curvature is generally less
sharp and the safety limits on trackwarp variations on such track are more
stringent. See Title 49 Code of Federal
Regulations (CFR) 213.63 and 213.331.
Although the derailments prompting
issuance of this safety advisory all
occurred on Class 1 track at speeds of
15 mph or less, and did not result in any
injuries, the consequences could have
been much worse. For example, one of
the derailments resulted in the derailed
train fouling the adjacent track on
which a National Railroad Passenger
Corporation (Amtrak) Acela Express
train was traveling. Had the
circumstances been different, a
significant collision could have
occurred. Thus, the recommendations in
this notice are important not only in
preventing low-speed, wheel-climb
derailments themselves but in
preventing what may be more serious
consequences of such derailments.
Although Federal regulations require
suspension systems on Tier II 3
passenger equipment to reasonably
prevent wheel climb and wheel
unloading under all loading conditions
and at all track speeds (see § 238.427),
there is no equivalent requirement for
Tier I passenger equipment (see
2 Fifteen mph or less. The maximum allowable
operating speed for passenger trains on Class 1
track, as defined under 49 CFR 213.9, is 15 mph.
All references in this notice to a section or other
provision of a regulation are to a section, part, or
other provision in 49 CFR.
3 Tier II passenger equipment operates at speeds
exceeding 125 mph but not exceeding 150 mph,
whereas Tier I passenger equipment operates at
speeds not exceeding 125 mph. See § 238.5.

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