Transportation News

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Deadly Arkansas train crash cleanup ongoing

An important highway in northeast Arkansas could stay closed into next week as crews clean up the wreckage left from a head-on train collision, a highway official said Wednesday. Two railroad workers were killed and two others were injured when the Union Pacific freight train [...]

Medicare: Consider insurance when traveling abroad

When planning a foreign trip, it’s highly unlikely your first thought would be, “Will Medicare pay if I get injured or have a medical emergency before I get back home?” Many patients think their Medicare benefits will provide coverage, wherever they go. Unfortunately, this is [...]

Railroad man’s dying wish means one last ride

Gordon Russ was a railroad man all his life — and beyond. Russ died last year at 94 in Tacoma General Hospital, where he was born in 1919. A train engineer at heart until the end, he left his four children with one last request. Read the complete story at The News Tribune.

Members invited to join Omaha Labor Day Parade

The SMART Transportation Division’s Nebraska State Legislative Board is once again organizing participation in Omaha’s annual Labor Day parade Monday, Sept. 1, and SMART members from Omaha and surrounding areas are invited to take part. The festivities begin Sunda [...]

Land deals slowing California high-speed rail plan

The California High-Speed Rail Authority needs to buy more than 550 pieces of property to build its first 29-mile stretch of rail line between Avenue 17 in Madera to American Avenue south of Fresno. And along the next 100 miles between Fresno and Bakersfield, as many as 1,150 [...]

Funeral set for member Hayes, killed in UP crash

A funeral service will be held at 12 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 23, at Turrentine-Jackson-Morrow Chapel in Allen, Texas, for SMART Transportation Division member Roderick A. Hayes, 31, who was killed in a Union Pacific train collision Aug. 17. Interment will follow at Ridgeview Mem [...]

Durbin sets hearing on Amtrak delays

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Weeks after calling for a study of the potential for increased service along Amtrak’s Chicago to Carbondale route, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin is holding a hearing in Champaign Wednesday on freight train interference along the corridor. The meeting between S [...]

NTSB: Crash wiped out signal that could hold clues

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – A federal investigator said Tuesday (Aug. 19) that a signal that would have given a final instruction to the crew of a railroad train involved in a fatal head-on collision was damaged in the accident but could still hold clues as to what happened. Crews ar [...]

Member dies in UP train collision in Arkansas

Two Union Pacific Railroad employees were killed and two others were injured when two UP trains collided early Sunday (Aug. 17) morning in Hoxie, Ark. SMART Transportation Division member and conductor Roderick A. Hayes, 31, and engineer Chance Gober, 40, were both killed on [...]

LIRR contract approved by SMART, seven unions

The members of Long Island Rail Road General Committee of Adjustment GO 505 have ratified a new agreement with LIRR management by a 97 percent margin, General Chairperson Anthony Simon reports. It is the largest margin of approval for a contract in the general committee’s his [...]