Category: News

Avantair announces plan to resume operations

August 9, 2013 Troubled airline Avantair, expects to resume flights in early August, pending new financing. On Wednesday, July 17, the airline announced it’s “go-forward” plan for continuing operations. The go-forward plan included a change in name to “NewCo.” [...]

Tags Avantair, aviation, NewCo, Piaggio Aero

Emergency RSAC meeting announced

August 9, 2013 The Federal Railroad Administration announced Aug. 8 that it would hold an emergency meeting of the Railroad Safety Advisory Committee (RSAC) Aug. 29. The meeting will focus on the July 6 train derailment in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec. Preliminary findings from the derailment and s [...]

Tags FRA, RSAC

Szabo: ‘Rail is the transportation mode of opportunity’

August 9, 2013 On July 30, Federal Railroad Administrator Joe Szabo addressed attendees of the SMART Transportation Division’s regional meeting in Anaheim, Calif., speaking about future endeavors the FRA has for the rail industry and about safety enhancements moving forward. “Ra [...]

Tags anaheim, FRA, Joe Szabo, Szabo

Mississippi Export workers grab 8-year deal

August 8, 2013 Train and engineer workers employed by Mississippi Export Railroad have ratified a new eight-year agreement by a unanimous vote. SMART Transportation Division Vice President David Wier said the agreement provides for cumulative wage increases of 22 percent over the life of th [...]

Tags Mississippi Export, Wier

Thank you fellow bus operators and President Futhey

August 8, 2013 Bus companies are comprised of many departments and each department relies on one another in order to be a successful operation. But rarely do the bus operators get the credit they deserve. The daily elements that they face would make a lot of people second-guess their career [...]

Tags bus, studivant

Montreal, Maine & Atlantic files for bankruptcy

August 8, 2013 Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Ltd, the railway involved in last month’s deadly derailment and explosion in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, filed for bankruptcy protection on Wednesday, saying the move would enable the company to preserve the value of its assets. The railway said [...]

Tags Montreal Maine & Atlantic Railway

Single-person train crew operations must be stopped

August 8, 2013 By Mike Futhey, SMART Transportation Division President – The events that unfolded July 6 in the Canadian province of Quebec, where a runaway train exploded and killed 47 people in the city of Lac-Megantic, weigh on the minds of an assortment of people whose lives were touch [...]

Tags FRA, Quebec, single-person crew

Va. agrees to pay more for Amtrak’s rail service

August 8, 2013 Responding to a federal mandate and acting on transportation legislation passed this year by the General Assembly, Gov. Bob McDonnell announced Tuesday that Virginia will assume more financial responsibility for Amtrak regional service in the state. The agreement had to be in [...]

Tags Amtrak

RRB’s Barrows: ‘We are entitled…we worked for it’

August 7, 2013 On July 29, Railroad Retirement Board Labor Member Walt Barrows addressed attendees at the SMART Transportation Division’s Anaheim, Calif., regional meeting. He spoke about the beginnings of the RRB, pensions and retirement plans, attacks on workers in both the public and pri [...]

Tags Barrows, RRB, RRB annuity

TSA expands to railroad stations

August 7, 2013 WASHINGTON – As hundreds of commuters emerged from Amtrak and commuter trains at Union Station on a recent morning, an armed squad of men and women dressed in bulletproof vests made their way through the crowds. The squad was not with the D.C. Police Department or Amtrak’s po [...]

Tags TSA