Year: 2010

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Rail freight loadings continue to show improvement, reports the AAR in releasing carloading data for the week ending Oct. 16.

Total U.S. carloadings increased by more than 10 percent over the same week in 2009.

Intermodal loadings were up by more than 15 percent over the comparable week in 2009.

Fourteen of the 19 carload commodity groups increased from the comparable week in 2009.

For the first 41 weeks of 2010, U.S. railroads carloadings are up more than 7 percent over the first 41 weeks in 2009; and intermodal loadings are up almost 15 percent.

Amtrak reported Oct. 21 that Chief Operating Officer Bill Crosbie is leaving Amtrak immediately, and the position of chief operating officer is being abolished.

 Amtrak President Joseph Boardman, in an employee advisory, said the vice presidents of the operating departments will begin reporting directly to him.

“Bill has made important contributions to Amtrak in the seven years he’s been here, and his oversight of the many facets of the operation has supported Amtrak through a period of strong ridership and demand for our services,” Boardman said in the employee advisory.

Take note of the CORRECT toll-free telephone number for the Railroad Retirement Board’s Information Line:

(877) 772-5772

This number replaces a previous toll-free number to reach the Railroad Retirement Board.

The old number no longer reaches the Railroad Retirement Board’s information line. That number was reassigned by the phone company.

In fact, some callers report they have called that number and reached a recording seeking payment from them.

Older copies of RRB publications still carry the old and no longer valid toll free phone number for the Railroad Retirement Board, and some UTU members may be in possession of those publications.

Again, the ONLY valid toll-free telephone number for the Railroad Retirement Board’s Information Line – toll free from all areas of the United States – is:

(877) 772-5772

Union Pacific earnings for the third quarter 2010 soared by 51 percent from the third quarter 2009, the railroad told investors Oct. 21.

UP told Wall Street analysts it was the company’s most profitable quarter ever.

In reporting the record earnings, UP Chairman Jim Young told Wall Street analysts that the railroad had put some 1,100 furloughed employees back to work during the third quarter 2010, and that all furloughed workers likely would be back on the job in coming months.Young also told analysts that UP likely will hire additional employees in 2011, assuming the economy remains strong.

UP credited increased rail traffic (up 14 percent for the third quarter versus third quarter 2009), the ability to extract higher freight rates from shippers, and improved productivity as the reasons for the record profits.

Per share earnings for UP jumped from 1.01 in the third quarter 2009 to 1.56 per share in the third quarter 2010. This exceeded estimates of Wall Street firms.

UP reported a record operating ratio of 68.2 percent. Operating ratio is the railroad’s operating expenses expressed as a percentage of operating revenue, and is considered by economists as a basic measure of carrier profitability.

CSX earlier reported that its third quarter earnings soared by 43 percent.

Kansas City Southern reports third quarter earnings Oct. 26, and Norfolk Southern reports Oct. 27. As BNSF is now privately held, it does not report earnings separately.

As the recession takes its toll, an increased rail safety threat is emerging – the theft of rail spikes and tie plates from active railroad lines.

In Woodbine, N.J., last week, police arrested four men suspected of stealing spikes and tie plates from five miles of New Jersey Transit track — used by Cape May Seashore Lines for passenger and freight operations — and selling the metal for scrap, reports the Cape May Herald newspaper.

It’s just something else rail employees must be on the lookout for – an additional aspect of situational awareness that ensures train and engine crews go home to their families in one piece.

Train and engine employment continues to climb back toward pre-recession levels, with Class I railroads continuing to call back furloughed train crews.

The Surface Transportation Board posted data for September, showing train and engine employment on Class I railroads grew almost 9 percent in September, versus September 2009; and was almost 2 percent higher than in August 2010.

Train and engine service employment stood at 61,444 in September, while total Class I railroad employment was at 154,094.

UTU Michigan State Legislative Director Jerry Gibson knows the value of the UTU PAC in electing labor friendly lawmakers. He knows how to share those facts, also.

UTU Local 1075 Secretary-Treasurer John Purcell says he and other members of his Trenton, Mich., local had “no clue of what the UTU PAC was. No one had ever explained how it worked” until Gibson showed up at a union local meeting.

Purcell credits Gibson with educating the local’s members “on how PAC funds are used and the benefits the PAC provides. I started contributing myself immediately and began to encourage others to do the same,” Purcell said in a recent e-mail he sent Gibson.

“The value of the UTU PAC was further driven home after my attendance at the regional meetings where I learned what was being done in Washington D.C., and the impact of our PAC funds there,” Purcell said.

More recently, Purcell said the UTU’s get-out-the vote drive for the Nov. 2 elections was a success. Post cards sent members through a project of the National Legislative Office “reached the members’ homes and several contacted me and asked questions,” Purcell said.

“I provided information which included that the UTU PAC is not a partisan program and that it supports candidates that support us regardless of party affiliation,” Purcell said. “I used the information provided, which listed successful legislation that has improved safety and benefits.

“All of this resulted in 12 members either increasing their UTU PAC donation or becoming new donors all together,” Purcell said.

Purcell said he now writes a check to the UTU PAC in the amount of $265 per month, and 44 percent of Local 1075’s members now donate. He said his goal is to gain PAC contributions from 75 percent of Local 1075’s members.

Union Pacific is at it again — and the UTU and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen intend to stop it, again.

The “it” is a UP request to the Federal Railroad Administration that UP be allowed to bring trains from Mexico into the United States without proper mechanical safety inspections at the border crossing.

In a petition to the FRA, the UTU and the BLET asked the agency to deny UP’s latest waiver request that trains from Mexico be allowed enter the U.S. through El Paso, Texas, without first undergoing required mechanical safety inspections.

“Safety is the paramount reason that the [UP request] should be denied,” the UTU and the BLET told the FRA. “It is common” for cars from Mexico to enter the U.S. “with handbrakes applied, retaining valves set, angle cocks closed and bad order cars located within the train.

“The bad order cars from Mexico are sent into the U.S. so that UP can repair them. Not to be overlooked is the fact that these trains also frequently are transporting hazardous materials cars,” the UTU and the BLET told the FRA.

“There exists an adequate repair facility at UP’s River Yard located near the International Bridge which can accommodate these trains,” the FRA was told.

Furthermore, the UTU and the BLET told the FRA, “The granting of this kind of petition is not what Congress intended by its enactment of the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008.

“Congress made it clear that defective cars from Mexico should not enter the U.S. There is every indication that these trains did not receive proper mechanical and brake inspections in Mexico, and there has been no certification by the FRA that the Mexican trains have complied with the applicable U.S. standards.

“Historically, the FRA has denied requests for waiver of air brake and mechanical safety inspections on trains entering the U.S. if the request involves movement of the trains past a point where the inspections can be performed,” the UTU and the BLET told the FRA.

“We believe the FRA should stand fast with this policy and, consistent with earlier decisions of this type, deny the [UP waiver] request.”

WASHINGTON – U.S. Surface Transportation Board member Charles “Chip” Nottingham said he will not seek reappointment when his term expires Dec. 31.

Under federal law, STB members may continue serving for up to 12 months after expiration of their term, or until a successor is nominated by the White House and confirmed by the Senate.

President Obama has not announced a nominee to succeed Nottingham, the lone Republican on the three-person STB.

The agency’s rail regulatory functions include approving mergers, line sales, line leases, line abandonments and imposition of labor protective conditions.

The other two members of the STB are Chairman Dan Elliott and Vice Chairman Frank Mulvey, both Democrats. Elliott was appointed chairman to succeed Nottingham in that post following Obama’s becoming president.

UPPER DARBY, Pa. — It’s something every bus driver fears – a gun pulled in anger aboard a bus.

It happened – again – in Upper Darby, Pa., last week on a Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority bus, according to the Associated Press.

A female passenger brandished a handgun and threatened a fellow passenger during an argument. The altercation was stopped by a cool-headed third passenger, reported the Associated Press.

The Associated Press said there were 30 people on board the bus at the time. Police arrested the woman who brandished the handgun.

The UTU National Legislative Office and many state legislative directors are working with lawmakers to seek legislation requiring driver training in how to deal with unruly and abusive riders.

The UTU also is working to require protective shields for drivers and other crime deterring devices aboard buses, such as cameras.