Transportation News

Visit the digital archive of the SMART-TD News (PDFs)

Former N.J. Conrail/CSX local chairman dies

William Arthur McManus (Maxie), 74, of Dumont, N.J., died Jan. 5, 2019, at the James J. VA Medical Center in the Bronx, N.Y. Bill, a member of SMART Transportation Division Local 1447, joined the union in November 1977 and was a railroad conductor with CSX and Conrail for mor [...]

RRB nominees confirmed; Amtrak board choices go back to president

Six nominees to transportation-related agencies were confirmed by the U.S. Senate via unanimous consent Jan. 2, including three Railroad Retirement Board members. Johnathan Bragg, Thomas Jayne and Erhard R. Chorle were all confirmed to the RRB. Bragg, the labor member of the [...]

FRA publishes minimum drug and alcohol testing rates for 2019

On Dec. 28, 2018, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) published its determination of minimum random drug and alcohol testing rates for 2019 for covered service employees and Maintenance of Way (MOW) employees in the Federal Register. FRA determined that the minimum annu [...]

Local chairperson speaks at rail trespassing/crossing fatality summit

Your browser does not support the video tag. Tom Cahill, local chairperson of LCA-049 (CSXT – B&O) and vice president of SMART Transportation Division Local 631 (Brunswick, Md.), was among the presenters at the first Trespasser and Grade Crossing Fatality Prevention [...]

Local 495 member dies in train accident

Jeffrey Keith Hague, 34, died Sunday, Dec. 30, 2018, as the result of a railroad accident in Oakley, Kan. Hague was a conductor for Union Pacific and a member of Local 495 (Salina, Kan.) since 2012. Hague was the salutatorian of his 2002 graduating class. He went on from high [...]

S&T Making Cents newsletter: December 2018

Meet your Membership Representative teams SMART Transportation Division has restructured at its headquarters to help assist Local Treasurers with the implementation and use of TD Connect and the eBill system. As part of this process, a team of Membership Representatives has b [...]

AP analysis: DOT miscalculated when considering brake rule

The Associated Press reported Dec. 20 that an analysis by the federal Department of Transportation (DOT) did not take into account up to $117 million in damage reductions when considering the repeal of a Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) rule requiring the installation of [...]

Fundraiser established for TD member affected by Calif. fire

A GoFundMe online fundraising effort has been created in order to assist a Local 492 member who lost his home in the Camp wildfire that ravaged more than 153,000 acres of Butte County, Calif. The home of Ervis R. Obregon Jr., a conductor with Union Pacific, was one of the nea [...]

CSX shareholders suing carrier’s board over Harrison hiring

A ruling is expected in January on whether a lawsuit by a trio of CSX shareholders who have sued the carrier’s board over the hiring of late CEO E. Hunter Harrison in 2017 can advance, the Florida Times-Union reports. The 72-year-old Harrison sought an $84 million finan [...]

Former UTU Assistant President Lloyd W. Swert passes away

Lloyd W. “Corky” Swert, who served as United Transportation Union assistant president in the 1990s, passed away at his home in Hillsdale, Mich., on Wednesday. He was 86. Swert, a member of UTU Local 2 in Toledo, Ohio, hired on as a brakeman for the New York Centra [...]