Infrastructure Week 2014 will be held May 12-16 and will explore emerging solutions, innovative approaches and best practices being developed nationwide to modernize aging infrastructure. Daily signature events will focus on major infrastructure challenges, including freight [...]
International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers General Secretary-Treasurer Joe Sellers Jr. has issued the following SMART General Convention notice to all local union presidents, business managers, financial secretary-treasurers and local Trans [...]
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Amtrak inaugurated service to Union Depot in St. Paul May 7, effective with the arrival of the Empire Builder from Chicago. Amtrak President and CEO Joe Boardman was among several transportation leaders who cut the ribbon for the first-ever Amtrak service in [...]
WASHINGTON – A bill introduced in the House of Representatives this week calls for sweeping rail safety reforms in the wake of the train derailment in Spuyten Duyvil last December that killed four and injured dozens of others. The comprehensive legislation was proposed by thr [...]
DENVER – Gov. John Hickenlooper May 6 announced that he plans to sign H.B. 1161 on May 14 at the Pueblo Union Depot. The bill establishes a commission and fund to preserve the current Amtrak passenger train service in southern Colorado and potentially expand that service to i [...]
WASHINGTON – A great friend of organized labor and a leader of transportation infrastructure reformation, former U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar, died Saturday, May 3. Oberstar, 79, was the former chairperson of the House of Representatives’ Transportation and Infrastructure Committee [...]
WASHINGTON – Amtrak invites America to celebrate the many benefits trains bring to the nation at the seventh annual National Train Day on May 10, 2014. Trains are an integral part of daily American life and connect communities, provide jobs and economic development, support l [...]
The head of the MTA Wednesday abruptly fired Long Island Rail Road president Helena Williams and named her successor in the midst of intense labor negotiations. Williams, the first woman to run the nation’s busiest commuter railroad, said that after a board meeting, she [...]
Swift and crucial response offered by a SMART Transportation Division member to a woman in distress on a passenger platform in South Florida Feb. 15 likely resulted in life-saving action by the Tri-Rail conductor. Thomas E. Baker, a member of Local 30 at Jacksonville, Fla., a [...]
Non-union employees at a commuter rail operation in the state of New Mexico expressed interest in union representation and now they have it. Engineers, conductors and ticket agents working for New Mexico Rail Runner Express voted April 28-29 for representation by the SMART Tr [...]