Transportation News

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

TTD issues statement on Teamster raids

The following statement was issued by AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department President Edward Wytkind regarding the raiding of union membership by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. “As many of you are aware, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) has inc [...]

NTSB: Eye problems likely cause of 2012 train crash

TULSA, Okla. — An engineer killed in a fiery train collision in the Oklahoma Panhandle last year suffered from serious vision problems for much of his life, underwent several corrective procedures in the years leading up to the crash and even complained that he couldn’t [...]

UTUIA announces 2013-14 scholarship winners

The following students have been awarded scholarships from the United Transportation Union Insurance Association for 2013-2014 academic year. Fifty continuing $500 scholarships are awarded each year to UTUIA policyholders, their sons, daughters and grandchildren. District 1: [...]

Bus drivers say pesticides are making them ill

Los Angeles County bus drivers say they are regularly becoming ill — sometimes while behind the wheel — from pesticides sprayed inside their vehicles by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. At least 14 Metro drivers are pursuing workers’ compensation claims, and m [...]

Crude by rail ‘more flexible, economical’

BNSF Railway Co. expects to begin moving unit trains of crude oil from a Carlsbad, N.M., transload facility later this year after an expansion project is completed at the facility.

 The project at the Cetane Energy L.L.C.-owned facility calls for adding track to accommodate [...]

Conductor ‘makes every day a good day’

Gordon Bowe doesn’t become personal friends with all of his passengers. But after more than three decades of walking the aisles as a conductor on Metra trains to and from Chicago, Bowe, known by many as “Gordo,” has come to know those who ride the trains from Elburn through L [...]

SMART conductor helps rescue boy from cliff

SMART Transportation Division member and conductor Ben Goar (Local 911), along with engineer Frederick Jarrell, was presented with an award for helping to save seven-year-old William Simondet’s life. The Canadian Pacific conductor and the engineer saw the boy on a steep [...]

VRE members agree to three-year deal

Members of the SMART Transportation Division employed by Keolis Rail Services ratified a new three-year agreement June 7 to continue service on the Virginia Railway Express trains operating between Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C. Of the ballots returned, 78 percent wer [...]

L.A. Metro bus operator killed in crash

A Los Angeles Metro bus operator and SMART TD member was killed early Wednesday, June 12, in a head-on crash with a speeding flatbed tow truck. Olivia Gamboa, 47, a member of SMART TD Local 1563 at El Monte, Calif., was transported to a hospital in critical condition and late [...]

Amtrak, beware?

What’s up with California Rep. Jeff Denham? Enquiring Amtrak enthusiasts would like to know. According to a report by Politico transportation writer Adam Snider, the Republican representative from California’s 10th Congressional District “has been busy with rail lately, hitti [...]