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FAA reauthorization: A Sisyphean struggle

November 15, 2011 WASHINGTON – For more than four years, Congress has attempted, unsuccessfully, to pass a long-term commercial aviation funding bill to modernize airports and the national’s air traffic control system. Two sticking points this year in reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Ad [...]

Tags Essential Air Service, FAA reauthorizaton, Harry Reid, Jay Rockefeller, John Mica, NMB rule

Conductor certification now a reality

November 9, 2011 WASHINGTON – It’s now official. Conductor certification, mandated by the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008, became effective Jan. 1. In a final rule, published by the Federal Railroad Administration Nov. 9, railroads were ordered to implement, by Jan. 1, a formal trai [...]

Tags conductor certification, David Brooks, James Stem, John Lesniewski, John Risch, Larry Mann, Rail Safety Advisory Committee, ron Parsons, RSAC, Vinnie Tessitore

UP lone “revenue adequate” railroad for 2010

November 4, 2011 WASHINGTON – The U.S. Surface Transportation Board has determined that only one major railroad – Union Pacific – was “revenue adequate” in calendar year 2010. A railroad is considered “revenue adequate” if it achieves a rate of return on net investment equal to at least the c [...]

Tags BNSF, Canadian National, Canadian Pacific, CSX, Kansas City Southern, Norfolk Southern, revenue adequacy, STB, Union Pacific

Fighting the fight for equitable transit funding

October 26, 2011 By BONNIE MORRAlternate Vice President, Bus Department As some in Congress seek to slash spending on public transit – the only affordable means for millions of Americans going to and from work – ridership is soaring. The American Public Transit Association says more than five [...]

Tags American Public Transit Association, Bonnie Morr, transit, University of Wisconsin

‘We must not let the crazies turn back the clock’

October 25, 2011 Mike Futhey with Bill Lucy (For more than six decades, Bill Lucy has been a labor-union foot soldier. In 1968, as an officer of AFSCME Local 1733 in Memphis, Tenn., he collaborated with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the sanitation workers’ strike, during which Dr. King wa [...]

Tags Bill Lucy

Deputy FRA administrator to depart Nov. 1

October 25, 2011 WASHINGTON – Deputy Federal Railroad Administrator Karen Rae is departing the agency Nov. 3 to rejoin the New York State government as deputy secretary of transportation in the office of New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Rae has been the number two to Administrator Josep [...]

Tags Federal Railroad Administration, FRA, Kaen Rae

Former Alternate NLD Gene Plourd dead at 79

October 19, 2011 LIMERICK, Maine – Former Alternate National Legislative Director Gene Plourd (1993-1997) died Oct. 15 at age 79. Plourd, 79, born in Providence, R.I., hired out on Maine Central Railroad in December 1954, and was promoted to fireman in 1955, and engineer in 1962. Early in his [...]

Tags Gene Plourd

House bill would help restore transit service, jobs

October 17, 2011 WASHINGTON – A bi-partisan bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives to bring financial relief to distressed transit systems and to help stem cuts in transit jobs and service. Rep. Russ Carnahan (D-Mo.) and Rep. Steve Latourette (R-Ohio) have introduced H.R. 32 [...]

Tags bus, Local Flexibilty for Transit Assistance Act, Russ Carnahan, Steve LaTourette, transit

Obama names PEB to investigate rail labor dispute

October 6, 2011 WASHINGTON — A five-member Presidential Emergency Board was appointed by President Obama Oct. 6 to investigate and make non-binding recommendations in a dispute between 11 rail labor unions and the National Carriers’ Conference Committee, which represents BNSF, CSX, Kan [...]

Tags PEB, PEB No. 243, Presidential Emergency Board

Rail revenue adequacy faces challenge; stocks down

October 5, 2011 WASHINGTON – Individuals choose bank savings accounts based on the interest rate offered, assuming the investment is secure because no depositor has ever lost their principal on a Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) backed account. By contrast, corporate investors must con [...]

Tags cost of capital, return on investment, revenue adequacy, STB, Surface Transportation Board