Transportation News

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Schumer wants feds to review LIRR safety practices

The federal government needs to do a top-to-bottom review of the Long Island Rail Road to see if it is “rotten” and rife with safety problems like its sister agency, the Metro-North Railroad, Sen. Charles Schumer said Tuesday, March 18. The Federal Railroad Administration las [...]

Amtrak seeks new funding policy in budget request

WASHINGTON – In its Fiscal Year 2015 budget request to Congress, Amtrak is seeking a change in federal passenger rail investment and warns that continuation of current funding levels leave Northeast Corridor infrastructure vulnerable to a bigger, costlier and far more damagin [...]

Americans Do Not Want Bigger Trucks on Highways

Constituents in Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky and eight congressional districts – Pa. Dist. 9, Iowa Dist. 3, Colo. Dist. 4, Kan. Dist. 1, Kan. Dist. 2, Ill. Dist. 13, Ind. Dist. 4 and Mo. Dist. 8 – overwhelmingly disapprove increasing truck weight limits from the current 80,00 [...]

BNSF Planning to Add 5,000 Workers in 2014

Fort Worth-based BNSF Railway plans to hire 5,000 workers this year as part of a $5 billion investment in the railroad, Carl Ice, the company’s new president and CEO, said this morning during an interview on CNBC. Ice, who recently took over the CEO post from Matt Rose, said [...]

Great Lakes Airlines to leave N.D.

BISMARCK, N.D. – Great Lakes Airlines will be leaving North Dakota by the end of the month after serving the state for more than two decades. The Wyoming-based regional airline announced last week that it was suspending service to Dickinson and Williston. In January, it pulle [...]

RRB explains benefits under Railroad Retirement, SSA

Employers and employees covered by the Railroad Retirement Act pay higher retirement taxes than those covered by the Social Security Act, so that railroad retirement benefits remain higher than social security benefits, especially for “career” employees who have 30 or more ye [...]

FMCSA seeks electronic logbooks in bus industry

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) March 13 announced a proposal to require interstate commercial truck and bus companies to use Electronic Logging Devices (ELDs) in their vehicles to improve complian [...]

Morr: Stop privatization, keep our tax dollars here

By Bonnie Morr, Vice President, Bus –  In December, I attended a school bus summit in Washington hosted by the Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO. Though the topics of discussion centered around school bus issues, many were pertinent to our global bus community. [...]

Amtrak highlights 2014 infrastructure work

WASHINGTON – During 2014, Amtrak plans to move forward on key improvement projects, including continued installation of positive train control safety technology, the start of major construction to upgrade Northeast Corridor high-speed rail and expansion of station accessibili [...]

Hersman stepping down at NTSB

ITASCA, Ill. – The National Safety Council (NSC) announced March 11 the appointment of Deborah A.P. Hersman as the president and CEO of the 100-year-old organization chartered by Congress to prevent unintentional injury and death. Hersman, who is currently the chairman of the [...]