WASHINGTON — Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, the senior Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee, announced she will retire at the end of 2012, when her third six-year term ends. The Senate Commerce Committee has oversight of many rail, transit, air and bus issue [...]
Rail traffic continued its torrid growth the first week of 2011, with the Association of American Railroads (AAR) reporting freight carloadings were up more than 20 percent versus the same week in 2010, and intermodal (trailers and containers on flat cars) were up almost 9 pe [...]
In the wake of the horror of Tucson, which reawakened among Americans of all races, religions and cultures the knowledge that there is more that binds us in our hopes and dreams than divides us in our politics, the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in his “I Have a D [...]
(The following article, written by Ken Orski, editor and publisher of Innovation Briefs, is reproduced with permission of Mr. Orski.) WASHINGTON — Congressional action on transportation this year, including the shape of the next surface transportation bill, will be inev [...]
WASHINGTON — As the Jan. 1, 2012, effective date for conductor certification approaches, the UTU and Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen are urging the Federal Railroad Administration to revise certain portions of the proposed certification rules. Chief amo [...]
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, whose drivers are represented by the UTU, is phasing out its last diesel engine bus, becoming the nation’s first major urban bus fleet equipped entirely with alternative-fuel technology, which includes compressed n [...]
WASHINGTON — Republicans have finalized appointments to the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, which will be chaired in the upcoming Congress by John Mica (R-Fla.). Members include Minnesota’s Chip Cravaack, who defeated Democrat Jim Oberstar in [...]
By Calvin Studivant, Alternate vice president, Bus Department December marked 55 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 in honori [...]
Railroad Retirement, Social Security, Medicare and Railroad Unemployment Insurance payroll taxes have changed for 2011. Following are the tax rates: Railroad Retirement Tier I: Paid by employer: 6.20% on wages up to $106,800. Paid by employee: 4.2% on wages up to $106,800. S [...]
WASHINGTON — With 220,000 public and private highway-rail grade-crossings in the United States, train and engine workers are no strangers to dare-devil drivers attempting to beat the train. Through the first nine months of 2010, there were more than 1,300 train-vehicle [...]
SMART Union