Transportation News
Will Ferryville derailment be enough to change Van Orden’s tone on rail safety?
By Andy Hauck, Wisconsin SMART Transportation Division State Legislative Director On February 1 in Washington, DC, the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee held its first meeting of the 118th congressional session, and one member in particular wast [...]
Series of coalition building meetings has successful kick-off in Cleveland
Brother Arin Johnson of SMART Local 194 (Elkhart, Indiana) kicked off his series of coalition building meetings in Cleveland, Ohio on Wednesday, May 3rd. Johnson’s vision of bringing members from multiple carriers together to discuss best practices and form a clear idea of wh [...]
ProPublica reports: “As Rail Profits Soar, Blocked Crossings Force Kids to Crawl Under Trains to Get to School”
For ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom, Topher Sanders and Dan Schwartz (ProPublica), Joce Sterman (Gray Television/InvestigateTV), Scotty Smith (Gray Television/InvestigateTV) (video) and Jamie Kelter (ProPublica) (photography) recently reported: “Jeremiah Johnson couldn [...]
Defense of our bus operators is needed
SMART–TD is proud to represent the men and women driving the buses in America. The vast majority of our bus operators are assigned to fixed routes and drive 40–50-foot buses which require a Commercial Driver’s License, (CDL). These norms are and always have been the sta [...]
SMART-TD Local 1594 hosts productive meetings with TD leadership
Local #1594 in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia, represents roughly 300 SMART-TD members working for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority (SEPTA) in bus service, commuter rail, and trolley service. The size of this local and the diversity in its [...]
SMART-TD announces a price reduction for the Discipline Income Protection Program (DIPP) going into effect on August 1, 2023
This July, the Trustees of Discipline Income Protection Program (DIPP) are scheduled to meet to discuss plan design changes aimed at bringing about additional benefits for our members and making the program easier to participate in for members currently enrolled in the Brothe [...]
Pa. rail-safety bill passes through committee
By a 19-2 vote, the Pennsylvania House Consumer Protection, Technologies and Utilities Committee advanced its comprehensive rail safety bill, H.B. 1028, out of committee May 3. “This is a starting point,” said Republican Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Marshall (Distr [...]
Kansas secures two-person crews as the law of the land
Making two-person crews the rule of the land in the state of Kansas took an atypical route to the finish line but got there just the same. On Monday, May 1, Kansas became the 10th state in the country to secure 2PC as the minimum train crew size in the state. It has been the [...]