Can the Publishers of Trains can help this guy out with some coin?
In October, I made a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request to the Federal Railroad Administration for specific information regarding PTC performance on U.S. railroads. I received a reply on Nov. 21:
Re: FRA FOIA File No. 18-030
Dear Mr. Schanoes:
This letter is in regards to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, FRA file number 18-030, that you submitted to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) on October 26, 2017.
I am writing to inform you that the estimated cost of processing your request is considerably more than the $100.00 you have agreed to pay. Our current estimate of the cost of processing the approximately 32,576 pages of records responsive to your request is $56,260.23, which includes our estimated costs for search, review, and duplication. FRA calculated this amount based on our estimate of the number of hours (approximately 1,086) it will take to process the responsive records and the Department of Transportation’s fee schedule for processing FOIA requests. Under the circumstances, you may:
• Provide us with a payment of $56,260.23 for the processing of your request (information on how to make a payment is provided below);
• Ask us to process your request up to the amount you have already agreed to pay ($100.00), describing specifically what documents you wish FRA to process;
• Reduce the scope of your request, so as to limit the amount of time and/or duplication that would be required to process your request, such that your fee does not exceed the amount that you have agreed to pay; or
• Withdraw your request.
Please note that, pursuant to 49 C.F.R. § 7.45, the timeframe for process