The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined that two commuter railroad terminal accidents in the New York area were caused by engineer fatigue resulting from undiagnosed severe obstructive sleep apnea. The Sept. 29, 2016, accident on the New Jersey Transit rail [...]
A memorial fund for Amtrak conductor Mike Cella, a current SMART Transportation Division member out of Local 30 in Florida, and engineer Mike Kempf, a former SMART TD member, who were tragically killed in the line of duty on Sunday, Feb. 4, has been established. Proceeds from [...]
Robert Sumwalt, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), reported some preliminary findings Monday afternoon of his agency’s investigation into the Amtrak-CSX train collision that occurred Feb. 4 near Cayce, S.C. The train had 139 passengers and eigh [...]
A current SMART Transportation Division conductor and a former member were killed when Amtrak Train 91 traveling from New York to Miami collided early Feb. 4 with a stationary CSX freight train east of Columbia, S.C. Brother Michael Cella, 36, of Orange Park, Fla., was a cond [...]
SMART Transportation Division Colorado State Legislative Director Carl Smith reports that efforts by some state legislators to advance a Right to Work For Less bill were stopped in committee. By a 6-3 vote, members of the state House’s Colorado House State, Veterans & Mil [...]
Washington, D.C. (January 31, 2018) – SMART Transportation Division announced today the introduction of the Safe Freight Act (S.2360) by U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-North Dakota), which would require two crew members — one certified locomotive engineer and one certified co [...]
A privately chartered Amtrak train carrying dozens of Republican members of the House and Senate crashed into a garbage truck just south of Charlottsville, Va. So far, only minor injuries have been reported amongst the train passengers. One out of the three passengers on the [...]
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) Board of Directors unanimously adopted a motion to establish an agency-wide Good Jobs and Equity Policy that will cover billions of dollars of taxpayer-purchased trains, buses, and equipment last night. The [...]
SMART Transportation Division has completed a reorganization and expansion of its webpage dedicated to assisting secretaries & treasurers of Locals. The page is at https://www.smart-union.org/td/secretary-and-treasurer-tools/. It features guidance for new secretaries & [...]
The office of Designated Legal Counsel Willard J. Moody, Esq., based in Portsmouth, Va., has extended an offer of service to SMART Transportation Division members who may have been unjustly fired for alleged Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) violations. Television station WNYT [...]