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Norfolk Southern has launched a new advertising program that will debut on CNN and Fox television. It follows the announcement by Union Pacific last week of a new UP advertising effort to reach potential rail customers and rail investors.

The NS ad, according to the railroad, sends the message that rail supports the American economy and brings a world of opportunity and benefits to its customers and communities.

The ad reflects the fact that “NS is the backbone of an integrated logistics system that makes modern life possible,” said NS CEO Wick Moorman. “We have extraordinary abilities to offer in terms of service, safety, economy, sustainability, and the ways in which we connect the businesses and people who depend on us.”

WASHINGTON – U.S. Surface Transportation Board member Charles “Chip” Nottingham said he will not seek reappointment when his term expires Dec. 31.

Under federal law, STB members may continue serving for up to 12 months after expiration of their term, or until a successor is nominated by the White House and confirmed by the Senate.

President Obama has not announced a nominee to succeed Nottingham, the lone Republican on the three-person STB.

The agency’s rail regulatory functions include approving mergers, line sales, line leases, line abandonments and imposition of labor protective conditions.

The other two members of the STB are Chairman Dan Elliott and Vice Chairman Frank Mulvey, both Democrats. Elliott was appointed chairman to succeed Nottingham in that post following Obama’s becoming president.

UPPER DARBY, Pa. — It’s something every bus driver fears – a gun pulled in anger aboard a bus.

It happened – again – in Upper Darby, Pa., last week on a Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority bus, according to the Associated Press.

A female passenger brandished a handgun and threatened a fellow passenger during an argument. The altercation was stopped by a cool-headed third passenger, reported the Associated Press.

The Associated Press said there were 30 people on board the bus at the time. Police arrested the woman who brandished the handgun.

The UTU National Legislative Office and many state legislative directors are working with lawmakers to seek legislation requiring driver training in how to deal with unruly and abusive riders.

The UTU also is working to require protective shields for drivers and other crime deterring devices aboard buses, such as cameras.

The Railroad Retirement Board has confirmed for rail workers what the Social Security Administration already has told Social Security recipients: There will be no increase in benefits in 2011.

The reason is there was no increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) from the third quarter of 2009 to the corresponding period of the current year.

Additionally, and because the CPI did not rise, Railroad Retirement and Social Security beneficiaries will not see an increase in 2011 in the earnings limitation that triggers benefits cuts if they continue working while receiving benefits.

For those under full retirement age throughout 2011, the exempt earnings amount remains at $14,160. For beneficiaries attaining full retirement age in 2011, the exempt earnings amount, for the months before the month full retirement age is attained, remains at $37,680 in 2011.

For employee and spouse annuitants, full retirement age ranges from age 65 for those born before 1938 to age 67 for those born in 1960 or later. For survivor annuitants, full retirement age ranges from age 65 for those born before 1940 to age 67 for those born in 1962 or later.

Special work restrictions continue to be applicable to disability annuitants. In 2011, the monthly disability earnings limit will also stay at the previous year’s amount of $780.

Regardless of age and/or earnings, no Railroad Retirement annuity is payable for any month in which an annuitant (retired employee, spouse or survivor) works for a railroad employer or railroad union.

The Department of Health and Human Services has not yet announced if there will be Medicare premium changes for 2011. Information about Medicare changes for 2011, when available, may be found at www.medicare.gov.

SANFORD, Fla. – A new Amtrak station – seating 600 and four times the size of its predecessor – has opened near Orlando for the more than 244,000 annual Amtrak Auto Train passengers, reports an Amtrak press release.

The $10.5 million to enlarge and improve the station – severely damaged by a 2004 hurricane — was funded with $10.5 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). Since the hurricane, part of the waiting room was sheltered in a tent.

Amtrak’s Auto Train, operating between Lorton, Va., (just outside Washington, D.C.) and Sanford, is said by Amtrak to be “the longest passenger train in the world, with two locomotives and 40-plus passenger rail cars and vehicle carriers operating daily.”

The 855-mile Auto Train route is the only Amtrak service to simultaneously transport passengers and their motor vehicles, including cars, SUVs, vans, trucks and motorcycles. Each year, says Amtrak, the Auto Train draws more than 100,000 vehicles off heavily congested I-95.

Said the Amtrak press release: “A look at the license plates on vehicles being driven to and from the Auto Train shows it draws users from the Eastern Seaboard of the United States and several Canadian provinces, all choosing to ride overnight in sleeping compartments or reclining coach seats for the scheduled 17 ½ hour trip rather than drive the distance.”

BNSF, Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific have spent or are spending more than $600 million in Kansas, Pennsylvania and Illinois to increase their intermodal business.

BNSF is constructing a $200 million intermodal terminal southwest of Kansas City in Edgerton, Kan., reports journalstar.com. The state is contributing $35 million toward the project, which is to be repaid by a utilities sales tax.

Norfolk Southern will hold a groundbreaking Oct. 19 on a 220-acre, $94 million intermodal terminal near Greencastle, Pa., scheduled to be completed in 2012, reports progressiverailroading.com, which says the new terminal is part of the NS Crescent Corridor – a 2,500-mile intermodal double-stack route linking New Jersey and Louisiana.

Union Pacific, meanwhile, has opened a $370 million intermodal terminal at Joliet, Ill., reports journalstar.com. UP said the new terminal has the capacity to handle some 500,000 highway-to-rail containers and trailers, and is second in size to UP’s Long Beach, Calif., intermodal terminal that has a capacity of some 700,000 container and trailer loadings annually.

Railwayage.com reports that among the Joliet terminal’s features are four 8,000-foot tracks with capacity to handle the loading or unloading of 104 double-stack cars, six 8,000-foot tracks to sort railcars by destination, and six storage tracks.

WASHINGTON—State departments of transportation, which have long relied on gasoline and diesel fuel taxes to fund highways and transit programs, are asking Congress to replace the decades old pennies-per-gallon tax with a flat percentage tax, reports Dow Jones newswire.

The change is expected to increase dollars flowing into the Highway Trust Fund by almost $44 billion over six years, and debate could begin during a lame-duck congressional session following the November elections, said Dow-Jones.

Rather than tax gasoline at 18.4 cents per gallon, and diesel fuel at 24.4 cents per gallon, the new tax would be 8.4 percent on the price of each gallon of gasoline and 10.6 percent on the price of each gallon of diesel fuel, reported Dow-Jones.

Dow-Jones points out that raising the cents-per-gallon tax on motor fuels is not politically popular, but that the percentage tax would automatically increase federal revenue as the pump price of motor fuels increases – and insulate lawmakers from having to vote to raise motor fuels taxes in the future.

Republicans oppose the idea, however, according to Dow-Jones, which quotes Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), the senior Republican on the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, as calling the proposed percentage tax a “non-starter.”

 

 

HOPE, Ark. – Amtrak President Joseph Boardman told an audience here last week that poor service and arrogance were to blame for Amtrak’s loss of the contract to operate the Virginia Railway Express, reports the Hope Star newspaper.

The commuter service contract was lost to a French company, Keolis, which now operates the commuter trains between Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Amtrak lost the VRE contract “long before the bid,” said Boardman, as quoted by the newspaper. “We lost this contract because we didn’t take care of our customer … We were arrogant.”

The Hope Star quoted Boardman as saying Amtrak must demonstrate more “humility … be inclusive to those who want and have an idea … We need to share the decision making.”

 As reported by the Hope Star, Boardman said that as the federal railroad administrator, before becoming Amtrak’s CEO, he saw similar flaws in freight railroad management  — “They are good people, but way too autocratic; they depend too much on rules and not bringing ‘people’ people in, in an inclusionary way.”

 

By Bonnie Morr,

Alternate vice president, Bus Department

Right now in our country, economics are spelling out what transit and transportation will look like, now and in the future.

The UTU Bus Department has been following politics and the trends for funding that are necessary for passenger and public transportation to meet the needs of an aging population and growing automobile congestion. It does not look good.

In every town and community, hard decisions must be made — and we want those decisions made by lawmakers who understand the importance of adequate, reliable and safe public transportation, including transportation of school children by bus.

We have a responsibility to our families, children and community to make sure that the funding for public transportation stays in place. We can do that with our votes on Election Day.

When we say, “vote your paycheck,” keep in mind that the jobs of UTU Bus Department members depend on adequate, reliable and safe funding for public transportation.

We need to get out the vote for labor-friendly candidates who support adequate, reliable and safe public transportation.

Think jobs, because there are candidates out there who are coming after our jobs.

When you cast your ballot on Election Day, support candidates who will do the right thing when it comes to funding and ensuring adequate, reliable and safe public transportation.

I am a laborer. I drive a bus. I want the labor protections that labor-friendly candidates will honor with laws and regulations that my mother fought for as an organizer for the Ladies Garment Workers Union.

We have protections as unionized bus operators, and we want to extend those protections to the unorganized.

Let us all support candidates who are pledged to increased funding for public transportation, job security, safe working conditions and an environment that respects working families.

With 86 percent voting in favor, UTU-represented signal maintainers, mechanical forces and maintenance-of-way employees on Illinois & Midland Railroad (IMRR) have ratified a new five-year contract covering wages, benefits and working conditions.

Illinois & Midland is a subsidiary of Genesee & Wyoming.

The new agreement provides a general wage increase, retroactive pay to April 1, 2010, a cap on health care insurance contributions, a new short-term disability plan, an enhanced 401(k) plan, and enhanced options for personal leave days.

UTU International Vice President Delbert Strunk, who assisted with the negotiations, praised IMRR General Chairperson Bo O’Leary and Vice General Chairpersons Donnie Maurer and Loren “John” Thomas for their efforts during the negotiations.

Illinois & Midland Railroad is a 97-mile short line in central Illinois that interchanges with BNSF, Canadian National, Iowa Interstate, Kansas City Southern, Keokuk Junction, Norfolk Southern, Tazewell & Peoria, Toledo, Peoria and Western Railway, and Union Pacific.

Its principal commodities include chemicals, coal, food and feed products, forest products, metallic ores and minerals, and municipal solid waste.