World's longest train has new Florida station

SANFORD, Fla. – A new Amtrak station – seating 600 and four times the size of its predecessor – has opened near Orlando for the more than 244,000 annual Amtrak Auto Train passengers, reports an Amtrak press release. The $10.5 million to enlarge and improve the station – sever [...]

UTU to Congress: 'End air-employee abuse'

Airline pilots who sleep in the terminal because lodging is not provided? Flight attendants who can’t afford dental care and have used Super Glue to mend a broken tooth? Pilots and flight attendants who qualify for food-stamps? For airline pilots and flight attendants employe [...]

FRA to make cell-phone ban permanent

WASHINGTON — The Federal Railroad Administration has announced it will make permanent its Emergency Order No. 26 restricting the use by on-duty train crews of cell phones and other electronic devices. Some changes, as described below, are to be included in the permanent [...]

UTU DIPP: Above all, 'peace of mind'

By General Secretary & Treasurer Kim Thompson We are all familiar with employers imposing unwarranted discipline and even dismissal on employees. A member survey by the UTU’s Rail Safety Task Force revealed that more than 50 percent of train, engine and yard workers cite [...]

UTU locals must file IRS Form 990

UTU locals that have not filed Form 990, Form 990EZ or Form 990-N with the Internal Revenue Service for the last three years have until Oct. 15, 2010, to file, or they will automatically lose their tax-exempt status. For additional information on which of three above forms a [...]

UP inaugurates "close call" project

Employees at the nation’s largest rail yard, the Union Pacific yard in North Platte, Neb., can now voluntarily and anonymously report “close-call” incidents that could have resulted in an accident, but did not, without fear of sanction or penalty from their [...]

FRA: Rails can discipline camera disabling

The Federal Railroad Administration, following disciplinary action by Los Angeles Metrolink against two operating employees who disabled an inward facing camera in the locomotive cab, said that while the agency does not now regulate cab-installed inward facing cameras, it  [...]