Transportation News

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Amtrak CEO’s letter: Long-distance service stays through fiscal year

A U.S. senator from Kansas received an assurance in a letter from Amtrak’s president and CEO that the national passenger carrier will maintain long-distance service at its current status quo through the 2019 fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, and possibly on through the enactm [...]

RRB issues annual statements of service

Each year, the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) prepares a “Certificate of Service Months and Compensation” (Form BA-6) for every railroad employee with creditable railroad compensation in the previous calendar year. The RRB will mail the forms to employees during the fir [...]

Four suitors for Genesee & Wyoming

Four interested bidders have moved ahead to the next round of discussion for a stake in large short-line operator Genesee & Wyoming (G&W), Bloomberg News reports. Carrier leadership announced earlier this year that the company was up for either an outright acquisition [...]

The history of Memorial Day

Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in service of the United States of America. Over two dozen cities and towns claim to be the birthplace of Memorial Day. While Waterloo, N.Y., was officially declared the birthplace [...]

FRA just reduced the prospects of a safer railroad industry

By John Previsich, SMART TD President, and Dennis Pierce, BLET National President On Thursday, May 23, 2019, we were informed that the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) had released a notice, withdrawing a 2016 notice of proposed rulemaking establishing a minimum train cr [...]

John Risch: FRA, Trump administration halt all crew safety efforts

Dear SMART TD, Today the Trump administration did everything it could to stop all railroad crew safety issues. In a Federal Register posting published at 4 p.m. today, the FRA formally withdrew the pending proposed rulemaking dating from 2016 that would have set a mandatory c [...]

Time for action in Minnesota! Let senators know about two-person crews

The Minnesota House of Representatives has passed H.F. 286, Minimum Train Crew Requirement, a stand-alone version of two-person crew legislation. The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Frank Hornstein, passed Wednesday, May 15, by a 78-52 vote along party lines with the DFL majori [...]

2019 Regional Meeting: Night at Padres’ Petco Park offers food and fun

SMART Transportation Division has a grand slam of a time planned at San Diego’s Petco Park for registered attendees of the 2019 Regional Meeting on the evening of Tuesday, July 2. Food, fun and baseball will be the name of the game as registered meeting attendees watch the Pa [...]

Photos released in shooting of SEPTA conductor

Police continue to search for two suspects in the attempted robbery of a SEPTA conductor May 10 that ended with the conductor being shot in the hip. A $6,000 reward has been offered and video footage showing the suspects in the Carpenter Station incident has been released to [...]