WASHINGTON – Airline pilots spend nearly all their time monitoring automated cockpit systems rather than “hand-flying” planes, but their brains aren’t wired to continually pay close attention to instruments that rarely fail or show discrepancies. As a result [...]
While the focus of the SMART Transportation Division’s regional meetings has always been on education for its members, attendees are provided the opportunity for a little relaxation as well. Those attending the Anaheim regional meeting scheduled for July 29-31 are in fo [...]
A runaway oil train that killed scores of people when it slammed into a Quebec town is bringing renewed calls on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border for tougher safety rules for railroads. Regulators and watchdogs have sought for years improvements to a common tank car desig [...]
HERMON, Maine — The runaway Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway train that plowed through a small Quebec town killing 50 people on July 6 had one engineer assigned to it. The American union of railway workers representing most of Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway workers [...]
FARNHAM, Quebec — Locomotive engineer Tom Harding was likely the last person at the controls of the runaway train that rolled into downtown Lac-Mégantic Saturday morning, causing untold death and destruction. But though Harding himself has remained silent, a new picture is em [...]
A team from the Federal Railroad Administration is expected to arrive in Maine on Thursday to begin a comprehensive inspection of the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway’s tracks, operations and equipment. If inspectors find safety problems on the 275 miles of track [...]
A new and improved site – www.yourtracktohealth.com – replaces the previous Railroad Information Depot (www.rrinfodepot.com). Bookmark the new website address for easy future access: www.yourtracktohealth.com. The new yourtracktohealth.com is your online gateway to informatio [...]
ROANOKE, Va. – According to Robin Chapman, a spokesperson for Norfolk Southern (NS), 170 furloughed NS employees are headed back to work. Of those hired back, 60 were hired back permanently to train services and 70 were transferred to temporary positions that are guaranteed u [...]
MONTREAL — Nearly two decades ago, the fiery derailment of a Wisconsin train became a rallying point in a union fight to make the state the first in the United States to require two-person crews on locomotives. The 1996 wreckage of the train, which sent fireballs exploding 90 [...]
In an early morning accident Tuesday, July 9, Local 794 member Kevin Beggs was trapped under a BNSF boxcar, causing him to lose his legs. Currently, Beggs is listed in critical condition at Via Christi on St. Francis Hospital in Wichita, Kan., where he was flown via helicopte [...]