On the one-year anniversary of the shooting of Amtrak conductor Michael Case in Naperville, Ill., U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D – Ill.) introduced S. 2861 — The Passenger Rail Crew Protection Parity Act — a bill that would make it a felony to assault or intimidate [...]
SMART Transportation Division National Legislative Director John Risch addressed the National Association of Retired and Veteran Railway Employees (NARVRE) in Council Bluffs, Iowa, on May 21, touching on the current national political climate and the need for retirees to step [...]
SMART Transportation Division President John Previsich and leaders from four other unions — the ATDA, BLET, BRS and TCU — submitted a 26-page document May 7 in response to the Federal Railroad Administration’s request for comment on autonomous trains. In it, [...]
Today marks the start of the 2018 election season in earnest with four states – Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio and West Virginia — holding primary elections, with many other primaries to follow from now until September. This is the chance for members of SMART Transportat [...]
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has scheduled a meeting June 12, 2018, in Washington, D.C., to solicit comments and suggestions from stakeholders in the railroad and trucking industries on whistleblower issues within the jurisdictio [...]
A man’s rail career was jeopardized after eating a gummy bear, and SMART Transportation Division cautions members of the risks of a positive drug test after consuming “hemp products,” which are unregulated by the federal government and considered illegal by federa [...]
A pair of BNSF conductors out of Winslow, Ariz., were recently featured in an article by the Arizona Daily Sun talking about their concerns about automating trains. Legislative Representative Ellis Laird and Wade Carlisle, both of Local 113, talked to reporter Corina Vanek ab [...]
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congress passed and President Trump signed into law Friday a bipartisan spending agreement also known as the “omnibus” spending bill that provides a massive boost toward several of our union’s priorities, including transportation infrastructure projects, th [...]
Railroads’ progress on Positive Train Control remains uneven WASHINGTON—The U.S. Department of Transportation’s (US DOT’s) Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) today released a status update on its efforts to assist railroads in implementing positive train control syst [...]
The Trump administration’s Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has declined a request made by SMART Transportation Division to address the safety concerns of excessively long trains. In an April 25, 2017, letter from National Legislative Director John Risch to Robert Lauby, [...]