SMART Union
Valley View, Texas – A freight train has derailed in North Texas during stormy weather leaving 17 cars off the tracks and four crewmembers slightly hurt.
BNSF Railway spokesman Joe Faust says the derailment happened early Friday near Valley View, 50 miles northwest of Dallas. Four engines and 13 cars derailed.
Faust says the southbound train was hauling a variety of freight to the Fort Worth area, but no hazardous materials. Nothing spilled.
Read more from ABC-13.
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) are on the scene today of a BNSF Railway Co. crude-oil train that derailed and caught fire yesterday morning in Heimdal, N.D.
The BNSF train consisted of 109 total cars, 107 of which were loaded with crude oil. Two buffer cars were loaded with sand. Six of the crude oil cars derailed at about 7:30 a.m., resulting in a fire and the town’s evacuation. All other cars were pulled away from the scene to a safe distance. No injuries were reported, according to a statement issued by BNSF.
The tank cars involved in the incident were the unjacketed CPC-1232 models, which are among the tank-car models slated for retrofits or phasing out under new federal rules governing the safety of crude-by-rail transportation.
Read more from Progressive Railroading.
A train carrying crude oil through Wells County, North Dakota derailed May 6. At least six rail cars have caught fire, sending thick, black plumes of smoke billowing into the sky. The village of Heimdal and nearby farms were evacuated.
The BNSF Railway oil tanker derailed around 7:30 a.m. local time, Wells County Emergency Manager Tammy Roehrich said, the Grand Forks Herald reported.
Emergency crews from several fire departments across the region responded, as well as hazardous materials teams from Devils Lakes and Grand Forks, Cecily Fong, public information officer for the North Dakota Department of Emergency Services, said.
Read more from RT.
GENOA, Wis. – Charles Burch was heading to his favorite ice fishing spot, a Mississippi River backwater south of Genoa, when he ran into a railroad detective.
The 74-year-old angler said the cop asked where he was headed.
“Obviously, I’m going fishing,” Burch said, retelling the story.
The railroad cop told him if he went across the tracks he’d get a trespassing ticket.
There was no other way to reach the water, so Burch turned around and hasn’t been back to that spot since. Never mind that he’d been fishing that slough for 40 years.
Read more from the StarTribune.
Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. is extending its operating improvement plans as the railroad seeks to recover from “significant service-related challenges” that the carrier and its customers have struggled with over the past year.
Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the railroad’s parent, said BNSF has seen its network operate more smoothly lately as it has boosted capacity by expanding lines, adding locomotives and bringing in new hires. “We plan to continue our capital expansion and operational improvement initiatives in 2015 in order to meet customer demand and improve and maintain service levels,” the Berkshire said in its first-quarter 10-Q filing late Friday.
Read more from The Wall Street Journal.
BNSF Railway Co. said Thursday it is cutting back hiring and instituting furloughs because of declining freight demand.
“Our workforce needs are driven by our customers’ freight transportation needs. Customers’ volumes in the near term have come down somewhat from their prior estimates; as a result, we are having to adjust our workforce demand numbers down to match volume and the work required to move that volume,” the company said in an emailed statement.
BNSF Railway spokeswoman Roxanne Butler said the company would be reducing its hiring plans for the next several months and temporarily furloughing a number of employees.
Read more from Lincoln Journal Star.
The nation’s four major railroads are still carrying less freight than they were before the recession. But the last decade has been an exhilarating ride for them nonetheless — an era of growing profits, soaring stock prices and ambitious investments.
For Jacksonville-based CSX Corp., freight volume has dropped 7 percent since 2004. Meanwhile, its shares have climbed to $35 from less than $6, and its net income has risen 450 percent, to almost $1.9 billion in 2013, according to SEC filings.
Read more from The Florida Times-Union.
With rail network congestion improving in some of the nation’s grain belt, Union Pacific Railroad and BNSF Railway are facing another prospective headache: a shutdown of the port complex of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the country’s largest.
Omaha-based Union Pacific Railroad says a work slowdown by the the International Longshore and Warehouse Union on the California waterfront is hurting international volumes of cargo containers that travel by ship, rail and truck.
BNSF Railway, owned by Omaha’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., said the labor dispute needs to get resolved before the economy begins to register damage.
Read the complete story at Omaha.com.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – BNSF Railway Co. has been found in violation of the Federal Railroad Safety Act* by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration. OSHA’s investigation upheld allegations that the company disciplined an employee assigned to its station in Ottumwa, Iowa, for following a physician’s treatment plan. The company has been ordered to pay the conductor $12,000 in damages, remove disciplinary information from the employee’s personnel record and provide whistleblower rights information to all its employees.
“Workers should never be forced to choose between staying healthy or facing disciplinary action,” said Marcia P. Drumm, OSHA’s acting regional administrator in Kansas City. “Whistleblower protections play an important role in keeping workplaces safe. It is not only illegal to discipline an employee for following doctor’s orders, it puts everyone at risk.”
OSHA’s investigation upheld the allegation that the railroad company disciplined the conductor in retaliation for taking leave in line with a treatment plan ordered by a doctor. The employee was ill and saw a doctor on Dec. 16, 2013. Following the appointment, the conductor immediately notified a supervisor that the doctor had ordered him to stay out of work for the remainder of the day. The note also covered illness suffered during the weekend, which was part of the employee’s scheduled time off. The employee was subsequently disciplined for violating the company’s attendance policy.
BNSF Railway has been ordered to pay $2,000 in compensatory and $10,000 in punitive damages, as well as reasonable attorney’s fees. Any of the parties in this case can file an appeal with the department’s Office of Administrative Law Judges.
OSHA enforces the whistleblower provisions of the FRSA and 21 other statutes protecting employees who report violations of various airline, commercial motor carrier, consumer product, environmental, financial reform, food safety, health care reform, nuclear, pipeline, worker safety, public transportation agency, railroad, maritime and securities laws.
Employers are prohibited from retaliating against employees who raise various protected concerns or provide protected information to the employer or to the government. Employees who believe that they have been retaliated against for engaging in protected conduct may file a complaint with the secretary of labor to request an investigation by OSHA’s Whistleblower Protection Program. Detailed information on employee whistleblower rights, including fact sheets, is available at http://www.whistleblowers.gov.
Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees. OSHA’s role is to ensure these conditions for America’s working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education and assistance. For more information, visit http://www.osha.gov.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Burlington Northern Santa Fe LLC wrongfully terminated an employee in Kansas City after he reported an injury to his left shoulder, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The company has been found in violation of the Federal Railroad Safety Act*, and OSHA ordered the company to pay the apprentice electrician $225,385 in back wages and damages, remove disciplinary information from the employee’s personnel record and provide whistleblower rights information to all its employees.
“The resolution of this case will restore the employee’s dignity and ability to support his family,” said Marcia P. Drumm, OSHA’s acting regional administrator in Kansas City, Missouri. “It is illegal to discipline an employee for reporting workplace injuries and illnesses. Whistleblower protections play an important role in keeping workplaces safe because they protect people from choosing between their health and disciplinary action.”
OSHA’s investigation upheld the allegation that the railroad company terminated the employee following an injury that required the employee to be transported to an emergency room and medically restricted from returning to work. The company’s investigation into the injury, reported on Aug. 27, 2013, concluded that the employee had been dishonest on his employment record about former, minor workplace injuries unrelated to the left shoulder. These conclusions led the company to terminate the employee on Nov. 18, 2013.
OSHA found this termination to be retaliation for reporting the injury and in direct violation of the FRSA. BNSF has been ordered to pay $50,000 in compensatory damages, $150,000 in punitive damages, more than $22,305 in back wages and interest and reasonable attorney’s fees.
Any of the parties in this case can file an appeal with the department’s Office of Administrative Law Judges.
OSHA enforces the whistleblower provisions of the FRSA and 21 other statutes protecting employees who report violations of various airline, commercial motor carrier, consumer product, environmental, financial reform, food safety, health care reform, nuclear, pipeline, worker safety, public transportation agency, railroad, maritime and securities laws.
Employers are prohibited from retaliating against employees who raise various protected concerns or provide protected information to the employer or to the government. Employees who believe that they have been retaliated against for engaging in protected conduct may file a complaint with the secretary of labor to request an investigation by OSHA’s Whistleblower Protection Program. Detailed information on employee whistleblower rights, including fact sheets, is available at http://www.whistleblowers.gov.
Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees. OSHA’s role is to ensure these conditions for America’s working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education and assistance. For more information, visit http://www.osha.gov.