Transportation News

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Congress provides $15 million for railroad inspections

The fatal derailment of a Metro-North train at the southern tip of the Bronx last month has spurred Capitol Hill lawmakers to boost the federal government’s “woefully underfunded” rail inspection program. The bipartisan spending deal reached Monday night by Republican and Dem [...]

SMART presents its first constitution and ritual

We are pleased, as your general president and transportation division president, to present the first SMART Constitution and ritual to our membership. This is a milestone for both the former Sheet Metal Workers’ International Association and the United Transportation Union, t [...]

FRA to rule on in-cab train cameras

Two U.S. senators say a federal rail safety agency plans to propose a rule regarding the installation of video cameras aboard trains to monitor drivers and record accidents. Sen. Charles Schumer, of New York, and Richard Blumenthal, of Connecticut, said Sunday that they had b [...]

FMCSA extends medical cert requirement for bus ops

The Federal Motor Carrier Administration (FMCSA) Jan. 10 announced that it is extending by one year, until Jan. 30, 2015, a requirement that interstate commercial driver’s license (CDL) holders retain paper copies of their medical examiner’s certificate and continue to make t [...]

LaHood to co-chair Building America's Future

Two former leading U.S. transportation officials who left the Obama administration in recent months were named on Wednesday to new private-sector posts. Ray LaHood, the former U.S. Secretary of Transportation, will join a Washington, D.C-based advocacy group, where he will pu [...]

Keolis wins MBTA commuter rail contract

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s board of directors today unanimously voted to accept the T’s recommendation that Keolis, a French rail company, take over operation of the state’s commuter rail system, winning the state’s largest operating contract in history. [...]

Transportation Division Auditor Stephen Noyes retires

SMART Transportation Division Auditor Stephen A. Noyes has retired, effective Dec. 31, 2013, after 42 years of continuous membership. The duties formerly performed by Noyes will now be shared by Transportation Division Auditors Bobby Brantley and Mike Araujo. Local treasurers [...]

Calif. high-speed train in political storm

LOS ANGELES — Gov. Jerry Brown of California is riding into an election year on a wave of popularity and an upturn in the state’s fortunes. But a project that has become a personal crusade for him over the past two years — a 520-mile high-speed train line from Los Angeles to [...]

Rails accused of tampering with video in Amtrak crash

RENO, Nev. – Lawyers for a trucking company are accusing two railroad companies of tampering with evidence about a June 2011 collision between a tractor-trailer and an Amtrak train that killed six people in northern Nevada. Lawyers for John Davis Trucking Co. say they have ev [...]

Commuter rail firm faults MBTA on bid vetting

The Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Co. is crying foul at what they are calling a flawed procurement process that included few substantial conversations, a complaint lodged with the MBTA before the Globe reported Saturday that the T will recommend that the company’s sole [...]