Category: Amtrak/Commuter News
Conservatives pressing attack on working families
Public transportation funding, transportation jobs, workplace safety, Railroad Retirement and Medicare are under a mean-spirited and sustained attack by congressional conservatives who are trying to muscle their agenda through Congress prior to the November elections. The UTU [...]Senate transport bill only a first step
WASHINGTON – A two-year blueprint for transportation spending has emerged from the Senate, but House action still is required before a bill is ready for President Obama’s signature into law. Notwithstanding the headlines, the Senate’s passage of the two-year S. 1813, “Moving [...]Job briefings save limbs and lives
Job briefings can prevent serious injuries and fatalities, says the Federal Railroad Administration in a switching fatalities and severe injury update. The FRA cites 23 fatalities that have occurred as a result of what it terms “inadequate job briefings.” The FRA offers the f [...]
Metrolink leading way installing PTC
Positive train control (PTC) is modern technology to reduce train accidents, save lives and limbs, improve on-time performance and produce revenue-enhancing business benefits for railroads. PTC utilizes the satellite global positioning system (GPS), wireless communications an [...]OSHA elevates whistleblower priority
WASHINGTON – Whistleblower protection administered by the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has been elevated in agency priority, with the program now administered directly by OSHA’s assistant secretary of labor. The Department of Labo [...]NJT conductor charged in ticket fraud
A New Jersey Transit conductor has been arrested and charged with official misconduct, theft and conspiracy, according to news reports, following a seven-month investigation into missing ticket money. The alleged crime is said to have occurred on NJT’s North Jersey Coast Line [...]Rep. Bucshon: Tear down that bill
A daily fact of life for train crews is transportation to and from terminals in shuttle-vans operated by firms under contract to railroads. Over the past year, four crew members died and another was seriously injured in two separate accidents while riding in shuttle vans. Shu [...]3 crewmembers dead in VIA Rail derailment
BURLINGTON, Ont. – Three Canada VIA Rail crew members riding in the lone locomotive of a five-car passenger train died in a derailment here Feb. 26. More than 40 passengers and another crew member were injured, many seriously. News reports indicate the fourth crewmember suffe [...]