Regulatory Relief To Allow Speeds Up to 45 MPH for Non-Traversable Curbs

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION <SUBAGY>Federal Railroad Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>49 CFR Part 222</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. FRA-2025-0120]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 2130-AD14</RIN> <SUBJECT>Regulatory Relief To Allow Speeds Up to 45 MPH for Non-Traversable Curbs</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), Department of Transportation (DOT). <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM). <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> This proposed rule would revise the definition of a non-traversable curb in FRA's train horn regulation in conformance with five longstanding FRA Safety Board waivers that allow highway speeds up to 45 miles per hour (mph) where these highway curbs are present. </SUM> <DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Comments on the proposed rule must be received by September 2, 2025. FRA may consider comments received after that date, but only to the extent practicable. </DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> <E T="03">Comments:</E> Comments related to Docket No. FRA-2025-0120 may be submitted by going to <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov</E> and following the online instructions for submitting comments. <E T="03">Instructions:</E> All submissions must include the agency name, docket number (FRA-2025-0120), and Regulatory Identification Number (RIN) for this rulemaking (2130-AD14). All comments received will be posted without change to <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov;</E> this includes any personal information. Please see the Privacy Act heading in the <E T="02">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION</E> section of this document for Privacy Act information related to any submitted comments or materials. <E T="03">Docket:</E> For access to the docket to read background documents or comments received, go to <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov</E> and follow the online instructions for accessing the docket. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> James Payne, Staff Director, Grade Crossing and Trespasser Outreach, FRA, telephone: (202) 441-2787, email: <E T="03">James.Payne@dot.gov;</E> or Amanda Maizel, Attorney Adviser, FRA, telephone: (202) 308-3753, email: <E T="03">Amanda.Maizel@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, FRA is reviewing its regulatory requirements in parts 200 through 299 of title 49, Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) to provide regulatory relief to regulated entities. One such regulatory relief proposal would revise the definition of a non-traversable curb to allow for speeds up to 45 mph. The current definition of a non-traversable curb is established in 49 CFR part 222, “Use of Locomotive Horns at Public Highway-Rail Grade Crossings.” It describes a highway curb designed to discourage a motor vehicle from leaving the roadway and notes that they are used at locations where highway speeds do not exceed 40 mph. At the time that 49 CFR part 222 was issued, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) provided guidance that vertical curbs should not be used with speeds greater than 40 mph. Subsequently, AASHTO modified its guidance stating that vertical curbs should not be used with speeds greater than 45 mph. <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> FRA proposes to revise the definition in 49 CFR 222.9 in conformance with AASHTO's updated guidance. <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>  See Section 6.3.2.5, Policy on Geometric Design of Highways and Streets (7th Ed., 2018). </FTNT> In addition, the revision of this definition is in conformance with the waivers that FRA has previously granted to applicants who have sought relief from the requirement that medians with non-traversable curbing may not be used where highway speeds exceed 40 mph. <E T="03">See</E> Docket Nos. FRA-2009-0066, 2010-0137, 2012-0030, 2012-0031, 2012-0074. <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Section-by-Section Analysis</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">Section 222.9 Definitions</HD> This proposed rule would revise the definition of a non-traversable curb, which currently provides for use of such curbs at locations where highway speeds do not exceed 40 mph, to allow use at locations where highway speeds do not exceed 45 mph. This proposed rule would thereby codify five longstanding waivers in FRA's train horn regulation. <HD SOURCE="HD1">III. Regulatory Impact and Notices</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. Executive Order (E.O.) 12866 (Regulatory Planning and Review) and DOT Regulatory Policies and Procedures</HD> FRA has considered the impact of this NPRM under E.O. 12866 (58 FR 51735, Oct. 4, 1993), Regulatory Planning and Review, and DOT Regulatory Policies and Procedures. The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs within the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) determined that this NPRM is not a significant regulatory action under section 3(f) of E.O. 12866. FRA analyzed the potential costs and benefits of this proposed rule. Because this rule would revise the definition of a non-traversable curb and would codify five longstanding waivers in FRA's train horn regulation, this proposed rule would impart no additional burdens on regulated entities. Moreover, this rule would provide some qualitative benefits to regulated entities and the U.S. government, by clarifying, simplifying, and updating the language of part 222. This rule, if finalized as proposed, would result in cost savings. Impacted parties would no longer be required to submit periodic, repetitive waiver requests related to the regulatory definition of a non-traversable curb. This rule would also conform FRA regulations with guidance provided by industry. <HD SOURCE="HD2">B. E.O. 14192 (Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation)</HD> E.O. 14192 (90 FR 9065, Jan. 31, 2025), Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation, requires that for “each new [E.O. 14192 regulatory action] issued, at least ten prior regulations be identified for elimination.”  <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> Implementation guidance for E.O. 14192 issued by OMB (Memorandum M-25-20, Mar. 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>3</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>2</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>3</SU>  Executive Office of the President. Office of Management and Budget. Guidance Implementing Section 3 of Executive Order 14192, Titled “Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation.” Memorandum M-25-20. March 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 proposed rulemaking is expected to have total costs less than zero, and therefore it would be considered an E.O. 14192 deregulatory action upon issuance of a final rule. While FRA affirms that each amendment proposed in this NPRM has a cost that is negligible or “less than zero” consistent with E.O. 14192, FRA still requests comment on the extent of the cost savings for the changes proposed in this NPRM. <HD SOURCE="HD2">C. Regulatory Flexibility Act and E.O. 13272</HD> The Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 601 <E T="03">et seq.</E> ), as amended by the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996, <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> requires Federal agencies to consider the effects of the regulatory action on small business and other small entities and to minimize any significant economic impact. Accordingly, DOT policy requires an analysis of the impact of all regulations on small entities, and mandates that agencies strive to lessen any adverse effects on these businesses. The term <E T="03">small entities</E> comprises small businesses and not-for-profit organizations that are independently owned and operated and are not dominant in their fields, and governmental jurisdictions with populations of less than 50,000 (5 U.S.C. 601(6)). <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>  Public Law 104-121, 110 Stat. 857 (Mar. 29, 1996). </FTNT> No regulatory flexibility analysis is required, however, if the head of an Agency or an appropriate designee certifies that the rule will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. This proposed rule would not preclude small entities from continuing existing practices that comply with part 222; it merely offers flexibilities that could result in cost savings, if a small entity or other regulated entity chooses to utilize those flexibilities. By extending this regulatory relief, many regulated entities, including small entities, would experience a cost savings. Consequently, FRA certifies that the proposed action would not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. In accordance with section 213(a) of the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996 (Pub. L. 104-121, 110 Stat. 857), FRA wants to assist small entities in understanding this proposed rule so they can better evaluate its effects on themselves and participate in the rulemaking initiative. If the proposed rule would affect your small business, organization, or governmental jurisdiction and you have questions concerning its provisions or options for compliance, please consult the person listed under <E T="02">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT</E> . <HD SOURCE="HD2">D. Paperwork Reduction Act</HD> There is no new collection of information requirements contained in this proposed rule, and in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, 44 U.S.C. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 17k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━