Metra FRA plans

Greetings,

Pursuant to the Illinois Freedom of Information Act., I request the following records, as pertain to the passenger train services operated by Metra itself:

1. The current conductor certification/qualification plan submitted to and approved by FRA in accordance with 49 CFR 242 (or predecessor regulations).

2. The current engineer certification/qualification plan submitted to and approved by FRA in accordance with 49 CFR 240 (or predecessor regulations).

3. The current passenger train emergency preparedness plan (aka "E-plan") submitted to and approved by the FRA in accordance with 49 CFR 239 for the Metra-operated passenger rail service.

Just to reiterate I am not seeking any documents that pertain exclusively to services operated by BNSF or UP or NICTD that Metra may be in possession of, only those that pertain to Metra's own operations.

The requested records will be immediately and freely available to the public on muckrock.com, and this request is not being made for any commercial purpose.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thanks for your help.

Cheers,

Joseph Durso

Hi,

Unfortunately the link expired before I had a chance to download the requested documents. Is it possible for the link to be reactivated, or to otherwise receive the responsive documents without resubmitting the request?

Thanks for your help,

Joseph Durso

Thanks very much for that.

All the best,

Joseph Durso

Hi,

I was able to access the link from this morning with no issues. Thanks again for your assistance with this request.

Sincerely,
Joseph Durso

METRA, please disregard this message. Just attaching responsive files from this request to the email chain for my record keeping purposes.

Thanks,

Joseph Durso

Joseph Durso
MuckRock News
DEPT MR 81337
411A Highland Ave
Somerville, MA 02144-2516
requests@muckrock.com

December 6th, 2019

Sarah Pratt
Public Access Counselor
Office of the Attorney General
500 S. 2nd Street
Springfield, Illinois 62701

By Email

Ms. Pratt,

This is to request review of partial denial of a FOIA request in accordance with 5 ILCS 140/9.5(a).

I have attached my initial request and the letter from the agency, Metra, denying release of portions of the requested records, including fully denying release of the third item requested, Metra’s Program Compliance Submission for Passenger Train Emergency Preparedness plan. I request review only of that denial.

The Passenger Train Emergency Preparedness plan is a document that Metra and all passenger railroads are required by Title 49, Section 239 of the Code of Federal Regulations to produce and submit to the Federal Railroad Administration for approval. The Federal Railroad Administration has wielded this emergency preparedness plan approval mechanism to opaquely and indirectly dictate economic aspects of passenger train operations in ways it is arguably not currently otherwise empowered to do, such as the controlling the number of crew members required to be on board trains. FRA said as much in a 2016 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, stating amid discussion of a crew size rule that ultimately did not come into effect that "Although it has done so indirectly, FRA has rejected some one-person passenger operations based on the passenger train emergency preparedness approval process required under 49 CFR 239.201." (https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/03/15/2016-05553/train-crew-staffing). I sought Metra's emergency preparedness plan so that I could better understand this indirect mechanism by comparing FRA approved crew size language for a longstanding commuter railroad like Metra, with language approved for newer commuter railroads, such as those in Denver and Salt Lake City.

In entirely denying release of the item, Metra cited Section 7(1)(v) of FOIA. Section 7(1)(v) exempts records "only to the extent that disclosure could reasonably be expected to jeopardize the effectiveness of the measure or the safety of the personnel who implement them or the public." On systems like Metra, train crew staffing is typically actually dictated by labor contracts at levels in excess of what might be required by the FRA, and those contracts are unlikely to be so closely protected. Furthermore, the number of crew members on the train would tend to be plainly obvious by regular observation to passengers. Anyone riding the train can count the number of uniformed conductors collecting tickets, or see how many engineers are sitting behind the window of the locomotive as the train enters the station. Disclosure of any language in the plan regarding train crew staffing requirements is unlikely to jeopardize the effectiveness of the sort of measure cited in the exemption, nor the safety of anyone, and so should not be exempt from release.

More generally, experience examining other Passenger Train Emergency Preparedness plans leads me to suspect Metra's plan may contain other portions that can be released without so jeopardizing the effectiveness of any measure, or the safety of anyone, such as the frequency with which Metra staff must receive training on the contents of plan, which Metra crew members must recieve CPR training, etc. Any such portions should also not be exempt from release.

I do not dispute that some portions of the requested record may rightfully be exempt from release under the exemption the agency cited. I request that you find that only sensitive portions truly subject to the cited exemption should be withheld, and that the agency can and should redact such portions and release the segregable remainder of the record.

I've separately emailed this request for review to the agency. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Joseph Durso

Please find attached my request for review in part of the denial here.

Sincerely,

Joseph Durso

It looks like that PDF I attached to my previous email of the review request I sent to the PAC came out a little wonky, so please find the full text below:

Joseph Durso
MuckRock News
DEPT MR 81337
411A Highland Ave
Somerville, MA 02144-2516
requests@muckrock.com

December 6th, 2019

Sarah Pratt
Public Access Counselor
Office of the Attorney General
500 S. 2nd Street
Springfield, Illinois 62701

By Email

Ms. Pratt,

This is to request review of partial denial of a FOIA request in accordance with 5 ILCS 140/9.5(a).

I have attached my initial request and the letter from the agency, Metra, denying release of portions of the requested records, including fully denying release of the third item requested, Metra’s Program Compliance Submission for Passenger Train Emergency Preparedness plan. I request review only of that denial.

The Passenger Train Emergency Preparedness plan is a document that Metra and all passenger railroads are required by Title 49, Section 239 of the Code of Federal Regulations to produce and submit to the Federal Railroad Administration for approval. The Federal Railroad Administration has wielded this emergency preparedness plan approval mechanism to opaquely and indirectly dictate economic aspects of passenger train operations in ways it is arguably not currently otherwise empowered to do, such as the controlling the number of crew members required to be on board trains. FRA said as much in a 2016 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, stating amid discussion of a crew size rule that ultimately did not come into effect that "Although it has done so indirectly, FRA has rejected some one-person passenger operations based on the passenger train emergency preparedness approval process required under 49 CFR 239.201." (https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/03/15/2016-05553/train-crew-staffing). I sought Metra's emergency preparedness plan so that I could better understand this indirect mechanism by comparing FRA approved crew size language for a longstanding commuter railroad like Metra, with language approved for newer commuter railroads, such as those in Denver and Salt Lake City.

In entirely denying release of the item, Metra cited Section 7(1)(v) of FOIA. Section 7(1)(v) exempts records "only to the extent that disclosure could reasonably be expected to jeopardize the effectiveness of the measure or the safety of the personnel who implement them or the public." On systems like Metra, train crew staffing is typically actually dictated by labor contracts at levels in excess of what might be required by the FRA, and those contracts are unlikely to be so closely protected. Furthermore, the number of crew members on the train would tend to be plainly obvious by regular observation to passengers. Anyone riding the train can count the number of uniformed conductors collecting tickets, or see how many engineers are sitting behind the window of the locomotive as the train enters the station. Disclosure of any language in the plan regarding train crew staffing requirements is unlikely to jeopardize the effectiveness of the sort of measure cited in the exemption, nor the safety of anyone, and so should not be exempt from release.

More generally, experience examining other Passenger Train Emergency Preparedness plans leads me to suspect Metra's plan may contain other portions that can be released without so jeopardizing the effectiveness of any measure, or the safety of anyone, such as the frequency with which Metra staff must receive training on the contents of plan, which Metra crew members must recieve CPR training, etc. Any such portions should also not be exempt from release.

I do not dispute that some portions of the requested record may rightfully be exempt from release under the exemption the agency cited. I request that you find that only sensitive portions truly subject to the cited exemption should be withheld, and that the agency can and should redact such portions and release the segregable remainder of the record.

I've separately emailed this request for review to the agency. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Joseph Durso

Following up on the request for review submitted by email 12/6. For reference please see attached the text of the request for review I sent your office on 12/6, the original request, and the denial letter from the agency.

My reply is attached.

Thanks,

Joseph Durso

Just in passing, here is an emergency preparedness plan (for a busier system than Metra) that was released to me with redactions:

https://www.muckrock.com/foi/new-jersey-229/njt-fra-records-84547/#file-838648

Best,

Joseph Durso