Category: Amtrak/Commuter
Peter DeFazio introduces bill to protect workers, passengers from harm on transit
U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR), the chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, introduced the Stop Sexual Assault and Harassment in Transportation Act (H.R. 5706) Oct. 25, legislation to help protect passengers and personnel from sexual assault and [...]
NJ SLB member introduces President Biden at NJT facility
As President Joe Biden appeared Oct. 25 at the New Jersey Transit Meadowlands Maintenance Complex in Kearny, N.J., it was SMART Transportation Division New Jersey State Legislative Board Vice Chairperson Joseph Williams (GCA-770), a New Jersey Transit engineer, who set the st [...]
Bose’s FRA nomination advances; he also meets with TD SLDs
Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Deputy Administrator Amit Bose’s nomination by President Joe Biden to become administrator of FRA was advanced Oct. 20 by the U.S. Senate’s Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. Along with Bose, the nomination of Meera Joshi to [...]
RRB: Railroad Retirement spouse benefits Q&A
In addition to the retirement annuities payable to railroad employees, the Railroad Retirement Act, like the Social Security Act, also provides annuities for some spouses of retired employees. Payment of a spouse annuity is made directly to the wife or husband of the employee [...]
Passengers, crew safe after fatal shootout aboard Amtrak’s Sunset Limited
A DEA officer was killed, as was a suspect, and two other law enforcement officers were wounded when gunfire erupted inside Amtrak’s Sunset Limited train the morning of Oct. 4 while it was stopped at the Southern Arizona Transportation Museum in Tucson. One suspect was [...]
Carrier groups’ waiver extension request denied by FRA
The Federal Railroad Administration on Sept. 21 sided with a SMART Transportation Division request to reject the extension of COVID-related regulatory waiver requests by the Association of American Railroads (AAR) and the American Public Transportation Association (APTA). The [...]
FTA publishes bus and rail safety reports
Last last week, FTA published new bus and rail safety data reports to provide a snapshot of transit industry safety performance from 2007–2018 for rail and 2008–2018 for bus, and focus on patterns and trends in events, fatalities and injuries. Report summaries and full report [...]
Statement from President Ferguson on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks
A statement from TD President Jeremy Ferguson: Twenty years after the shocking and devastating terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, we pause to remember the lives that were lost and irreversibly changed on that day. Members of our union, as many other people did in Pennsylvan [...]