Transportation Department, Federal Railroad Administration
On October 28, 2024, FRA published an NPRM proposing to amend certain regulations governing positive train control (PTC) systems. Through oversight and continued engagement with the industry, FRA has found that its existing PTC regulations do not adequately address temporary situations during which PTC technology is not enabled, including after certain initialization failures or in cases where a PTC system needs to be temporarily disabled to facilitate repair, maintenance, infrastructure upgrades, or capital projects. FRA expects PTC systems to be reliable and robust, further reducing the occurrence of initialization failures and outages. The NPRM proposes to establish strict parameters and operating restrictions under which railroads may continue to operate safely in certain necessary scenarios when PTC technology is temporarily not governing rail operations. By this notice, FRA is extending the NPRM's comment period, which will close on December 27, 2024, by 15 days.
Document Headings Document headings vary by document type but may contain the following: the agency or agencies that issued and signed a document the number of the CFR title and the number of each part the document amends, proposes to amend, or is directly related to the agency docket number / agency internal file number the RIN which identifies each regulatory action listed in the Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions See the Document Drafting Handbook for more details. Department of Transportation Federal Railroad Administration 49 CFR Part 236 [Docket No. FRA-2023-0064, Notice No. 2] RIN 2130-AC95 ( printed page 104510) AGENCY: Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), Department of Transportation (DOT). ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM); extension of comment period. SUMMARY: On October 28, 2024, FRA published an NPRM proposing to amend certain regulations governing positive train control (PTC) systems. Through oversight and continued engagement with the industry, FRA has found that its existing PTC regulations do not adequately address temporary situations during which PTC technology is not enabled, including after certain initialization failures or in cases where a PTC system needs to be temporarily disabled to facilitate repair, maintenance, infrastructure upgrades, or capital projects. FRA expects PTC systems to be reliable and robust, further reducing the occurrence of initialization failures and outages. The NPRM proposes to establish strict parameters and operating restrictions under which railroads may continue to operate safely in certain necessary scenarios when PTC technology is temporarily not governing rail operations. By this notice, FRA is extending the NPRM's comment period, which will close on December 27, 2024, by 15 days. DATES: The comment period for the proposed rule published October 28, 2024, at 89 FR 85462 , is extended. Comments should be received on or before January 11, 2025. ADDRESSES: Comments: Comments…
Citation: 89 FR 104510
