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RRB offices remain open, conferences canceled

October 3, 2013 The U.S. Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) has announced that during the lapse in federal funding for certain government operations which began Oct. 1, ongoing benefit payments will continue and all RRB offices are expected to remain open. RRB field offices, operating with redu [...]

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Conductor honored for saving man on tracks

October 3, 2013 OLYMPIA, Wash. – It’s every train conductor’s worst nightmare. On a sunny morning in July last year, a Tacoma Rail train hauling 10 rail cars filled with cargo bound for the Mottman Industrial Park approached the tunnel in downtown Olympia at Cherry Street and Sev [...]

Statement from Nigro on government shutdown

October 2, 2013 SMART General President Joseph Nigro has issued the following statement on the Oct. 1 shutdown of the federal government: “It has become frustrating to see that the U.S. House of Representatives has become so dysfunctional that it can no longer do its job and pass legis [...]

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Previsich now president of Transportation Division

October 1, 2013 John Previsich has been elevated to the position of president of the Transportation Division of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers following the retirement of Mike Futhey. Previsich becomes the second president of the SMART Tran [...]

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After a 42-year career, God’s blessings be upon you

September 30, 2013 By Mike Futhey, SMART Transportation Division President – After a rewarding career of working a combination of 42 years on the railroad and as a union representative, my wife, April, and I look forward to a productive post retirement in Memphis, Tenn. The career journey beg [...]

33 injured after CTA trains collide

September 30, 2013 More than 30 people were injured Sept. 30 morning after two trains running on the Chicago Transit Authority’s Blue Line tracks collided, CTA officials confirmed. The accident happened just before 8 a.m. at Harlem Avenue and Interstate 290 in Forest Park, a northwest suburb th [...]

RRB unemployment, sickness benefits to increase

September 30, 2013 Beginning Oct. 1, 2013, the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) will reduce railroad unemployment and sickness insurance benefits by 7.2 percent due to federal budget cuts first implemented in March 2013. The original reduction had been 9.2 percent since March. The adjusted [...]

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Railroads seek extension for installing PTC

September 30, 2013 WASHINGTON – Spurred by a deadly train crash in Los Angeles, Congress in 2008 passed with great fanfare legislation requiring the nation’s railroads to install a sophisticated collision-avoidance system by the end of 2015. Five years later, an industry move to extend th [...]

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Crews from BNSF collision upgraded to non-critical

September 30, 2013 Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board have gone to Amarillo to investigate the cause of Sept. 25’s BNSF train collision. The condition of the two BNSF employees that were originally reported to have suffered critical injuries in the crash have bee [...]

Senators want probe into Metro-North power failure

September 30, 2013 NEW YORK – Federal and state authorities should investigate the utility and transportation authority responsible for running the nation’s second-busiest railroad following a power failure that has disrupted service for tens of thousands of commuters in New York and Conn [...]