Administrative Updates to the Federal Railroad Administration's Special Notice and Emergency Order Procedures: Railroad Track, Locomotive, and Equipment

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION <SUBAGY>Federal Railroad Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>49 CFR Part 216</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. FRA-2025-0085]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 2130-AD12</RIN> <SUBJECT>Administrative Updates to the Federal Railroad Administration's Special Notice and Emergency Order Procedures: Railroad Track, Locomotive, and Equipment</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> This rule makes administrative updates to FRA's special notice and emergency order procedures: railroad track, locomotive and equipment, including updating addresses. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Effective July 1, 2025. </EFFDATE> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Veronica Chittim, Senior Attorney, Office of Safety Law, Office of the Chief Counsel, FRA, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590, (telephone 202-480-3410), <E T="03">veronica.chittim@dot.gov;</E> or Lucinda Henriksen, Senior Advisor, Office of Railroad Safety, FRA, (telephone 202-657-2842), <E T="03">lucinda.henriksen@dot.gov.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Background</HD> Consistent with the deregulatory agenda of President Donald J. Trump and Secretary of Transportation Sean P. Duffy, which seeks to unleash America's economic prosperity without compromising transportation safety, and as described in more detail below, this rule is making miscellaneous, administrative updates to its special notice and emergency order procedures: railroad track, locomotive and equipment in 49 CFR part 216. These changes include updating addresses that are no longer valid. <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Section-by-Section Analysis</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">§ 216.7 Penalties.</HD> To avoid the need to update this section every time the civil penalty amounts are adjusted for inflation, FRA is changing § 216.7 by replacing references to specific penalty amounts with general references to the minimum civil monetary penalty, ordinary maximum civil monetary penalty, and aggravated maximum civil monetary penalty. FRA is adding language to this section referring readers to 49 CFR part 209, appendix A, where FRA will continue to specify statutorily provided civil penalty amounts updated for inflation. To be consistent with other definitions of “person,” such as 49 CFR 270.5, FRA is updating the reference in the section from 1 U.S.C. 1 to 49 U.S.C. 21301. <HD SOURCE="HD2">§§ 216.11, 216.13, 216.14, and 216.15 Special Notices for Repairs</HD> FRA is amending §§ 216.11(b), 216.13(b), 216.14(b), and 216.15(b) to update the references from “FRA Regional Administrator” to “Division of FRA's Office of Railroad Safety” for the relevant technical discipline ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> Motive Power and Equipment (MP&E) or Track and Structures Division). These amendments are being made to ensure information gets to the agency subject matter expert in the specific discipline. <HD SOURCE="HD2">§ 216.17 Appeals</HD> FRA is amending § 216.17 to replace references of “FRA Regional Administrator” with “FRA Staff Director” for the relevant technical discipline. FRA is also replacing the outdated language in § 216.17(a), “[t]he appeal shall be made by letter or telegram,” with “[t]he appeal must be made by email to the relevant FRA Staff Director.” <HD SOURCE="HD2">§ 216.21 Notice of Track Conditions</HD> FRA is amending 49 CFR 216.21(a) to replace references of “FRA Regional Administrator” with “FRA Track and Structures Division Staff Director” and remove a reference to “FRA Regional Track Engineer.” In § 216.21(b), FRA is also replacing references of “FRA Regional Track Engineer” with “FRA Track and Structures Division Staff Director.” <HD SOURCE="HD2">§ 216.23 Consideration of Recommendation</HD> FRA is amending 49 CFR 216.23 to replace references of “FRA Regional Administrator” with “FRA Track and Structures Division Staff Director.” FRA is also replacing a reference of “FRA Regional Track Engineer” with “FRA District Track Specialist.” <HD SOURCE="HD2">§ 216.25 Issuance and Review of Emergency Order</HD> FRA is amending 49 CFR 216.25(a) to replace a reference of “FRA Regional Administrator” with “FRA Track and Structures Division Staff Director.” FRA is amending the language in § 216.25(b) to require a submission of a request of review of an emergency order to <E T="03">FRALegal@dot.gov.</E> FRA is removing the mailing address for the Office of the Chief Counsel. <HD SOURCE="HD1">III. Public Participation</HD> Under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), an agency may waive the normal notice and comment procedures if the action is a rule of agency organization, procedure, or practice. 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(A). Additionally, under the APA, an agency may waive notice and comment procedures when the agency for good cause finds that notice and public procedure are impracticable, unnecessary, or contrary to the public interest. 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(B). Since this final rule merely makes miscellaneous, administrative updates to the CFR, such as updating web addresses, it would not benefit from public comment, and notice and comment is not necessary. <HD SOURCE="HD1">IV. Regulatory Impact and Notices</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. Executive Order (E.O.) 12866 (Regulatory Planning and Review) and DOT </HD> <HD SOURCE="HD3">Regulatory Policies and Procedures</HD> FRA has evaluated this final rule in accordance with E.O. 12866, Regulatory Planning and Review (58 FR 51735, Oct. 4, 1993), and DOT Order 2100.6B, Policies and Procedures for Rulemaking (Mar. 10, 2025). The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs within the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) determined that this final rule is not a significant regulatory action under section 3(f) of E.O. 12866. Because this final rule makes administrative changes to FRA's special notice and emergency order procedures: railroad track, locomotive and equipment, including updating addresses, this final rule imparts no additional burdens on regulated entities. Moreover, this rule will provide some qualitative benefits to regulated entities and the U.S. government, by clarifying, simplifying, and updating the language and references of part 216. <HD SOURCE="HD2">B. E.O. 14192 (Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation)</HD> E.O. 14192, Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation (90 FR 9065, Jan. 31, 2025), requires that for “each new [E.O. 14192 regulatory action] issued, at least ten prior regulations be identified for elimination.”  <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> Implementation guidance for E.O. 14192 issued by OMB (Memorandum M-25-20, March 26, 2025) defines two different types of E.O. 14192 actions: an E.O. 14192 deregulatory action, and an E.O. 14192 regulatory action. <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>  Executive Office of the President. <E T="03">Executive Order 14192 of January 31, 2025. Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation.</E> 90 FR 9065-9067. Feb. 6, 2025. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>  Executive Office of the President. Office of Management and Budget. <E T="03">Guidance Implementing Section 3 of Executive Order 14192, Titled “Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation.”</E> Memorandum M-25-20. Mar. 26, 2025. </FTNT> An E.O. 14192 deregulatory action is defined as “an action that has been finalized and has total costs less than zero.” This final rule is expected to have total costs less than zero, and therefore it would be considered an E.O. 14192 deregulatory action. <HD SOURCE="HD2">C. Regulatory Flexibility Act</HD> The Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980 ((RFA), 5 U.S.C. 601 <E T="03">et seq.</E> ) and E.O. 13272 (67 FR 53461, Aug. 16, 2002) require an agency to prepare and make available to the public a regulatory flexibility analysis that describes the effect of the rule on small entities ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> small businesses, small organizations, and small governmental jurisdictions). A regulatory flexibility analysis is not required when a rule is exempt from notice and comment rulemaking. FRA has determined that this rule is exempt from notice and comment rulemaking. Therefore, a regulatory flexibility analysis is not required for this rule. <HD SOURCE="HD2">D. Paperwork Reduction Act</HD> There is no new collection of information requirements contained in this final rule, and in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, 44 U.S.C. 3501 <E T="03">et seq.,</E> therefore, an information collection submission to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is not required. The recordkeeping and reporting requirements already contained in part 216 became effective when they were approved by OMB on February 27, 2023. The OMB Control No. is 2130-0504, and OMB approval expires on February 28, 2026. <HD SOURCE="HD2">E. Environmental Assessment</HD> FRA has analyzed this rule for the purposes of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). In accordance with 42 U.S.C. 4336 and DOT NEPA Order 5610.1C, FRA has determined that this rule is categorically excluded pursuant to 23 CFR 771.118(c)(4), “[p]lanning and administrative activities that do not involve or lead directly to construction, such as: [p]romulgation of rules, regulations, and directives.” This rulemaking is not anticipated to result in any environmental impacts, and there are no unusual or extraordinary circumstances present in connection with this rulemaking. <HD SOURCE="HD2">F. Federalism Implications</HD> This final rule will not have a substantial effect on the States, on the relationship between the national government and the States, or on the distribution of power and responsibilities among the various levels of government. Thus, in accordance with E.O. 13132, “Federalism” (64 FR 43255, Aug. 1 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 21k characters. 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