Transportation News

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

Carrier groups’ waiver extension request denied by FRA

The Federal Railroad Administration on Sept. 21 sided with a SMART Transportation Division request to reject the extension of COVID-related regulatory waiver requests by the Association of American Railroads (AAR) and the American Public Transportation Association (APTA). The [...]

FTA publishes bus and rail safety reports

Last last week, FTA published new bus and rail safety data reports to provide a snapshot of transit industry safety performance from 2007–2018 for rail and 2008–2018 for bus, and focus on patterns and trends in events, fatalities and injuries. Report summaries and full report [...]

New director of programs at RRB

The U.S. Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) named Arturo Cardenas as the agency’s Director of Programs, the agency announced in a Sept. 24 release. Cardenas oversees all operations to process and pay benefits administered by the agency. He will also serve on the RRB’s Executive [...]

SMART-TD mourns another COVID-19 loss

Terri Poole Taylor Kerns, 52, of Local 1971 (Atlanta, Ga.) lost her life to COVID-19 on Friday, September 10. Diagnosed with COVID-19 on August 24, she was hospitalized Sunday, August 29 with severe chest pains. After suffering from cardiac arrest, she passed in the early hou [...]

Coordinated Bargaining Coalition statement: Sept. 22, 2021

September 22, 2021 — The Rail Unions comprising the Coordinated Bargaining Coalition (CBC), negotiating together in the current round of National Negotiations, have issued the following statement: “As we advised in January of 2021, the CBC and the nation’s rail carriers have [...]

RRB Q&A: Deemed service month credits

Railroad Retirement benefits are based on months of service and earnings credits. Earnings are creditable, up to certain annual maximums, on the amount of compensation subject to Railroad Retirement taxes. Credit for a month of railroad service is earned for every month in wh [...]