Senators want more money for rail inspections

NEW YORK – Two U.S. senators on Sunday called for expanded national railroad safety inspections, a day before a special federal safety team arrives in New York for a 60-day probe into operations on the Metro-North Railroad commuter train after the deaths of four passengers. I [...]

BNSF offers reward for information of vandalism

A freight train carrying vehicles and commodities that overturned on railroad tracks near a north Tulsa community early Friday is being treated as an act of vandalism with company officials offering a $100,000 reward to help find the person responsible, officials said. Joe Fa [...]

Whistleblowers can now file complaints online

WASHINGTON – Whistleblowers covered by one of 22 statutes administered by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration will now be able to file complaints online. The online form will provide workers who have been retaliated against an ad [...]

Carl Ice to succeed Rose as BNSF Railway CEO

BNSF Railway is promoting Carl Ice from president and chief operating officer to chief executive officer, replacing Matt Rose, who will become executive chairman. The railroad is owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and is one of Nebraska’s and Lincoln̵ [...]

Father of Vice President Robert Kerley dies

Richard Lavon Kerley, 84, the father of SMART Transportation Division Vice President Robert Kerley, died Dec. 8. Kerley graduated from Fort Scott High School in 1948 and married Joyce Briggs on Sept. 4, 1949, in Arcadia, Kan. In 1950, he began working for Palmer’s Service Sta [...]

Rutgers' bus ops were smart, now SMART

Bus operators for Rutgers University’s inter-campus bus and shuttle system seeking union representation overwhelmingly chose the SMART Transportation Division Dec. 9 as their collective bargaining representative. Among 112 eligible voters, 74 of the 80 operators participating [...]

Has Amtrak's NEC plan slowed to 160 mph?

Has Amtrak abandoned its vision of 220-mile-per-hour bullet trains speeding up and down the Northeast Corridor? The railroad recently issued draft specifications for new trains to replace its existing Acelas that call for 160 m.p.h. trains, not the 220 mph versions Amtrak sai [...]