It has been fifty-five years since Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala., bus — “an act that challenged the moral conscience of an entire nation,” said President Obama Dec. 1 in honoring her legacy Most historians date the beginning of [...]
A Federal Railroad Administration safety specialist has been honored with an Excellence Award by the U.S. Department of Transportation for what Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood called “his role in uncovering the widespread failure of a Class I railroad to maintain th [...]
WASHINGTON — Long term federal unemployment benefits expired Dec. 1 for hundreds of thousands of jobless as the lame-duck Congress failed to take action to extend them. Millions more will lose benefits if Congress does not act. Federal unemployment benefits had begun af [...]
Amtrak said that effective Dec. 15, it will accept unloaded guns in checked baggage at stations and on trains operating within the United States that offer checked baggage service. This change in the Amtrak checked baggage policy is required by the Consolidated Appropriation [...]
Railroad Retirement payroll taxes will remain at 2010 levels in 2011, reports the Railroad Retirement Board. For Tier I, carriers and employees each will pay 6.20 percent on a maximum of $106,800 of wages. For Medicare, carriers and employees each will pay 1.45 percent on all [...]
Shippers are increasingly abandoning all-truck movements for their freight in favor of rail intermodal (trailers and containers atop rail flat cars), reports the Journal of Commerce. Journal of Commerce trucking editor Bill Cassidy writes, “Supermarkets and shopping mal [...]
WASHINGTON – When the lame-duck Congress returns to the House and Senate floors Monday, Nov. 29, they will have until midnight Tuesday to prevent a lapse in federal long-term unemployment benefits. If lawmakers in the House and Senate do not extend those federal unemployment [...]
An agreement was reached with the carriers’ National Railway Labor Conference to extend until Dec. 31, 2010, the deadline for enrolling eligible dependent children for coverage under the National Railway Carriers and UTU Health and Welfare Plan (NRC/UTU) or the Railroad [...]
WASHINGTON — The outgoing chairman of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee – Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.), who was defeated in the Nov. 2 elections – fears increased polarization along party lines when the new Congress is seated in January. In an interview [...]
Toys for the holidays are helping to bring furloughed train and engine crews back to work. The Journal of Commerce reports that the number of containers (atop rail flat cars) carrying imported toys have increased by 20 percent this year compared to 2009. The busiest ports for [...]
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