30-day FRN

Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 173 / Tuesday, September 8, 2015 / Notices
extension of an existing collection of
information.
Dated: September 2, 2015.
Jeffrey Herzig,
Clearance Clerk.
[FR Doc. 2015–22521 Filed 9–4–15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4915–01–P

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Surface Transportation Board
Information Collection Activities:
Statutory Authority To Preserve Rail
Service (49 U.S.C. 10904–05 and 10907,
and 16 U.S.C. 1247(d))
AGENCY:

Surface Transportation Board,

DOT.
30-day notice and request for
comments.

ACTION:

As part of its continuing effort
to reduce paperwork burdens, and as
required by the Paperwork Reduction
Act of 1995, 44 U.S.C. 3501–3519 (PRA),
the Surface Transportation Board
(Board) gives notice that it is requesting
from the Office of Management and
Budget (OMB) approval of an extension
of the information collection—Statutory
Authority to Preserve Rail Service—
further described below. The Board
previously published a notice about this
collection in the Federal Register. 80 FR
38509 (July 6, 2015). That notice
allowed for a 60-day public review and
comment period. No comments were
received.
Under these statutory provisions, the
Board administers programs designed to
preserve railroad service or rail rightsof-way. When a line is proposed for
abandonment, affected shippers,
communities, or other interested
persons may seek to preserve rail
service by filing with the Board: an offer
of financial assistance (OFA) to
subsidize or purchase a rail line for
which a railroad is seeking
abandonment (49 U.S.C. 10904),
including a request for the Board to set
terms and conditions of the financial
assistance; a request for a public use
condition (§ 10905); or a trail-use
request (16 U.S.C. 1247(d)). Similarly,
when a line is placed on a system
diagram map identifying it as an
anticipated or potential candidate for
abandonment, affected shippers,
communities, or other interested
persons may seek to preserve rail
service by filing with the Board a feeder
line application to purchase the
identified rail line (§ 10907). When a
line is so placed on the map, the feeder
line applicant need not demonstrate that
the public convenience and necessity

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SUMMARY:

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require or permit the sale of the line, but
need only pay the constitutional
minimum value to acquire it.
Additionally, the railroad owning the
rail line subject to abandonment must,
in some circumstances, provide
information to the applicant or offeror.
The relevant information collections are
described in more detail below.
Comments are requested concerning:
(1) The accuracy of the Board’s burden
estimates; (2) ways to enhance the
quality, utility, and clarity of the
information collected; (3) ways to
minimize the burden of the collection of
information on the respondents,
including the use of automated
collection techniques or other forms of
information technology when
appropriate; and (4) whether the
collection of information is necessary
for the proper performance of the
functions of the Board, including
whether the collection has practical
utility.

53917

(sum total of estimated hours per
response × number of responses for each
type of filing).

TABLE—ESTIMATED HOURS PER
RESPONSE
Type of filing
Offer of Financial Assistance ...
OFA—Railroad Reply to Request for Information .............
OFA—Request to Set Terms
and Conditions ......................
Request for Public Use Condition ........................................
Feeder Line Application ............
Trail-Use Request .....................
Trail-Use Request Extension ....

Number of
hours per
response
32
10
2 40

2
70
4
4

Total ‘‘Non-hour Burden’’ Cost: None
identified. Filings are submitted
electronically to the Board.
Needs and Uses: Under the Interstate
Commerce Act, as amended by the ICC
Termination Act of 1995, Public Law
Description of Collections
104–88, 109 Stat. 803 (1995), and
Title: Statutory Authority to Preserve
Section 8(d) of the National Trails
Rail Service.
System Act, 16 U.S.C. 1247(d) (Trails
OMB Control Number: 2140–0022.
Act), persons seeking to preserve rail
STB Form Number: None.
service may file pleadings before the
Type of Review: Extension without
Board to acquire or subsidize a rail line
change.
for continued service, or to impose a
Respondents: Affected shippers,
trail use or public use condition. Under
communities, or other interested
49 U.S.C. 10904, the filing of an OFA
persons seeking to preserve rail service
starts a process of negotiations to define
over rail lines that are proposed or
the financial assistance needed to
identified for abandonment, and
purchase or subsidize the rail line
railroads that are required to provide
sought for abandonment. Once the OFA
information to the offeror or applicant.
is filed, the offeror may request
Number of Respondents: 40
(including informational filings required additional information from the
railroad, which the railroad must
of railroads).
provide. If the parties cannot agree to
Frequency: On occasion.
the sale or subsidy, either party also
may file a request for the Board to set
TABLE—NUMBER OF YEARLY
the terms and conditions of the financial
RESPONSES
assistance. Under § 10905, a public use
request allows the Board to impose a
Number
of
Type of filing
180-day public use condition on the
filings
abandonment of a rail line, permitting
Offer of Financial Assistance ...
1 the parties to negotiate a public use for
OFA—Railroad Reply to Rethe rail line. Under § 10907, a feeder
quest for Information .............
2 line application provides the basis for
OFA—Request to Set Terms
authorizing an involuntary sale of a rail
and Conditions ......................
1
line. Finally, under 16 U.S.C. 1247(d), a
Request for Public Use Condition ........................................
1 trail-use request, if agreed upon by the
Feeder Line Application ............
1 abandoning carrier, requires the Board
Trail-Use Request .....................
27 to condition the abandonment by
1 24
Trail-Use Request Extension ....
issuing a Notice of Interim Trail Use
(NITU) or Certificate of Interim Trail
Total Burden Hours (annually
Use (CITU), permitting the parties to
including all respondents): 368 hours
1 In

the 60-day notice for this collection, the
Board estimated that the number of Trail-Use
Request Extensions would be 94, but, upon further
review, staff has revised the number to 24 because
staff believes that number more accurately reflects
the annual number of this type of filing.

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2 In the 60-day notice, the Board used four hours
for the estimated hours for filing of an ‘‘OFARequest to Set Terms and Conditions,’’ but, upon
review, staff updated this amount to more
accurately reflect the hourly burden for this filing,
estimating it to be 40 hours rather than four.
Therefore, this notice updates those burden hours.

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Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 173 / Tuesday, September 8, 2015 / Notices

negotiate an interim trail use/rail
banking agreement for the rail line.
The collection by the Board of these
offers, requests, and applications, and
the railroad’s replies (when required),
enables the Board to meet its statutory
duty to regulate the referenced rail
transactions.
Retention Period: Information in these
collections is maintained by the Board
for ten years, after which it is
transferred to the National Archives as
permanent records.
DATES: Comments on this information
collection should be submitted by
October 8, 2015.
ADDRESSES: Written comments should
be identified as ‘‘Paperwork Reduction
Act Comments, Surface Transportation
Board, Statutory Authority to Preserve
Rail Service.’’ These comments should
be directed to the Office of Management
and Budget, Office of Information and
Regulatory Affairs, Attention: Chandana
L. Achanta, Surface Transportation
Board Desk Officer, by email at OIRA_
[email protected]; by fax at
(202) 395–6974; or by mail to Room
10235, 725 17th Street NW.,
Washington, DC 20503.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For
further information regarding the
Statutory Authority to Preserve Rail
Service, contact Chris Oehrle, Surface
Transportation Board, 395 E Street SW.,
Washington, DC 20423–0001, or email
[email protected]. [Federal Information
Relay Service (FIRS) for the hearing
impaired: (800) 877–8339.]
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Respondents seeking authority from the
Board to preserve rail lines must submit
certain information required under the
Board’s related regulations and, in some
circumstances, railroads seeking to
abandon a line must disclose certain
information to the offeror or applicant.
Offer of Financial Assistance. When a
rail line would otherwise be approved
for abandonment (or discontinuance),
any financially responsible person may
seek to acquire the line for continued
rail service (after abandonment has been
approved), or may seek to temporarily
subsidize continued operations by the
incumbent railroad (after abandonment
or discontinuance has been approved),
by filing an OFA under 49 U.S.C. 10904
and 49 CFR 1152.27. An OFA may be
submitted to the Board as soon as the
railroad seeks abandonment (or
discontinuance) authority. Once an OFA
is submitted, the abandoning railroad
must, upon request, promptly provide to
any party considering an OFA and to
the Board an estimate of the annual
subsidy or minimum purchase price; a
report on the physical condition of the

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line; and data on traffic, revenues, net
liquidation value, and the cost to
rehabilitate to class I (minimum) track
standards. If the parties are not able to
agree upon the purchase price or
subsidy, then, to move forward, either
party may ask the Board to set the price
or subsidy, which will be binding upon
the parties if the offeror chooses to
accept the terms set by the Board and
proceed with the purchase.
Public Use Request. Any person may
request that the Board prohibit an
abandoning railroad from disposing of
the right-of-way—for up to 180 days—
without first offering the right-of-way
(on reasonable terms) for other suitable
public purposes (such as mass transit,
pipeline, transmission lines, recreation,
etc.). Such requests are governed by 49
U.S.C. 10905 and 49 CFR 1152.28.
Feeder Line Application. When a line
has been identified on a railroad’s
system diagram map as a potential
candidate for abandonment (or
discontinuance), but before
abandonment (or discontinuance)
authority has been sought, any
financially responsible person (other
than a Class I or II railroad) may, by
filing a feeder line application under 49
U.S.C. 10907 and 49 CFR 1151, seek to
acquire the line for continued rail
service under the forced sale provisions
of the feeder railroad development
program.
Trail-Use Request. The Trails Act
provides a mechanism whereby any
interested person may seek to ‘‘rail
bank’’ a rail right-of-way that has been
approved for abandonment and use the
property in the interim as a recreational
trail. The Board has a ministerial role in
this process; under 49 CFR 1152.29,
interested persons may submit a request
to the Board for a trail-use condition,
and if the statutory conditions are met,
the Board must authorize the parties to
negotiate a trail-use agreement by
issuing a CITU, or, in an exemption
proceeding, a NITU. The CITU or NITU
typically permit negotiations for 180
days, but the negotiations can be
extended upon request to the Board.
Under the Trails Act, trail-use
agreements are consensual, not forced.
The abandoning railroad is free to
choose whether or not to enter into or
continue negotiations to transfer (all or
part of) the right-of-way to a trail
sponsor.
Under the PRA, a federal agency
conducting or sponsoring a collection of
information must display a currently
valid OMB control number. A collection
of information, which is defined in 44
U.S.C. 3502(3) and 5 CFR 1320.3(c),
includes agency requirements or
requests that persons submit reports,

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keep records, or provide information to
the agency, third parties, or the public.
Section 3507(b) of the PRA requires,
concurrent with an agency’s submitting
a collection to OMB for approval, a 30day notice and comment period through
publication in the Federal Register
concerning each proposed collection of
information, including each proposed
extension of an existing collection of
information.
Dated: September 2, 2015.
Jeffrey Herzig,
Clearance Clerk.
[FR Doc. 2015–22522 Filed 9–4–15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4915–01–P

DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
Internal Revenue Service
Open Meeting of the Taxpayer
Advocacy Panel Joint Committee
Internal Revenue Service (IRS),
Treasury.
ACTION: Notice of meeting.
AGENCY:

An open meeting of the
Taxpayer Advocacy Panel Joint
Committee will be conducted. The
Taxpayer Advocacy Panel is soliciting
public comments, ideas, and
suggestions on improving customer
service at the Internal Revenue Service.
DATES: The meeting will be held
Wednesday, October 28, 2015.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Lisa
Billups at 1–888–912–1227 or (214)
413–6523.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Notice is
hereby given pursuant to section
10(a)(2) of the Federal Advisory
Committee Act, 5 U.S.C. App. (1988)
that an open meeting of the Taxpayer
Advocacy Panel Joint Committee will be
held Wednesday, October 28, 2015, at
1:00 p.m. Eastern Time via
teleconference. The public is invited to
make oral comments or submit written
statements for consideration. For more
information please contact Lisa Billups
at 1–888–912–1227 or 214–413–6523, or
write TAP Office 1114 Commerce Street,
Dallas, TX 75242–1021, or post
comments to the Web site: http://
www.improveirs.org.
The agenda will include various
committee issues for submission to the
IRS and other TAP related topics. Public
input is welcomed.
SUMMARY:

Dated: September 1, 2015.
Sheila Andrews,
Director, Taxpayer Advocacy Panel.
[FR Doc. 2015–22580 Filed 9–4–15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4830–01–P

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