Year: 2013

Home>News>2013

WASHINGTON – The threat of unscrupulous school bus contractors transporting our nation’s students and the working conditions of drivers are among the topics featured at today’s school bus summit hosted by the Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO.

“During this summit we will drill down on the challenges faced by school bus drivers in a fast-changing industry that we believe needs greater scrutiny from federal and state regulators,” said TTD President Edward Wytkind. “To push this dialogue forward we will discuss reforms and better practices needed to protect the 25 million students our members transport daily. We are especially pleased that Anne Ferro, Administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), will join us.”

The summit, TTD’s second gathering of this kind in three years, will bring together national and local bus union leaders and activists, experts and federal regulators.

“We are grateful for the dedicated men and women who drive our kids to and from school and extracurricular events safely every day,” said Wytkind. “But we owe them more than our thanks – we must address their working conditions, improve oversight of private contractors and make sure we are providing them the support they need to maintain the highest safety standards possible.”

“We at FMCSA share a deep commitment to high safety standards for school bus drivers who keep our most precious cargo – our children – safe as they travel to and from school,” said Administrator Ferro. “It’s critical that everyone works together to make our highways and roads continually safer, and for the public do its part by driving safely in the vicinity of school buses.”

The agenda for today’s second summit will address four core issues:

Privatization: Unscrupulous private contractors often cut all the wrong corners, which undermines workers’ wages and benefits and subjects school children to substandard, poorly regulated school bus operations.
Driver Training to Keep Buses Safe: From intruders who try to board buses to students bullying each other, violence can erupt on buses. Drivers, who face physical attacks, need to be trained to respond to these situations while maintaining safe operation of their vehicles.
Bus Capacity: When drivers transport more students than a bus can reasonably fit, cramped space can jeopardize student safety if an accident or behavior outburst occurs.
Sleep Apnea: Any future regulations that create additional employment requirements must treat school drivers fairly.

“We will leave this summit with a better understanding of the challenges faced by America’s school bus drivers and their passengers and with a renewed commitment and strategy to make these operations safer,” Wytkind said.

Tags school bus, TTD

Investigators are looking at speed as a contributing factor to what may have caused a Grand Central-bound Metro-North train to derail while rounding a curve in the Bronx on Sunday, Dec. 1, sending train cars down a slope toward the Harlem River and throwing passengers out windows.

Four people were killed and dozens more were injured when the first four cars of the seven-car train broke away as the train was about 100 yards north of the Spuyten Duyvil station.

Read the complete story at NBC Connecticut.

Tags Metro-North

The Obama administration announced today that it achieved its goal of making HealthCare.gov work for the “vast majority” of users, two months after the wave of bugs and glitches that marred its launch.
The troubled “Obamacare” website will be able to support more than 800,000 consumers per day, marking success after weeks of frantic repairs, the administration said. The site is now online for more than 90 percent of the time. It had been crashing frequently, thwarting millions of people who tried to visit the site.

Seven people were killed in separate railroad accidents Sunday, Dec. 1, in New York and New Mexico.

Three employees of the Southwest Railroad in New Mexico died when when the train’s locomotive plunged 40 feet into a ravine.

In suburban New York City, a Metro-North commuter train derailed, killing four people and injuring 63, including 11 critically, when seven commuter cars ran off the tracks on a sharp curve, Reuters reports.

—

NEW YORK – A suburban New York train derailed Dec. 1, killing four people and injuring 63, including 11 critically, when all seven cars of a Metro-North train ran off the tracks on a sharp curve, officials said.

The crash happened at 7:20 a.m. (1220 GMT) about 100 yards (meters) north of Metro-North’s Spuyten Duyvil station in the city’s Bronx borough, said Metro-North spokesman Aaron Donovan.

Read the complete story at Reuters.

—

Authorities are investigating the cause of a freight train derailment in southern New Mexico that killed three railroad employees when the train’s locomotive plunged 40 feet down a ravine.

Police on Sunday, Dec. 1, identified the three as 38-year-old Donald White, 60-year-old Steven Corse and 50-year-old Ann Thompson. White lived in Silver City, N.M., and Corse and Thompson lived in the northern Arizona community of Paulden.

Read the complete story at ABC News.

Tags derailment

The offices of the SMART Transportation Division and the UTU Insurance Association will be closed Thursday, Nov. 28, and Friday, Nov. 29, in observance of Thanksgiving Day and

While a day of thanks has been observed in the United States and Canada since the days of our earliest European settlers, this year marks America’s 150th official Thanksgiving celebration. It was all begun, only 25 years before this union’s founding, by President Abraham Lincoln on the heels of his Gettysburg Address, commemorating one of the bloodiest battles on American soil.
The sacrifices of so many since that time also deserve our gratitude. The old shackles of slavery that Lincoln and his contemporaries overcame were replaced with the crushing burden of child labor, 16 hour workdays, company towns and starvation wages. We are thankful that all of those challenges were met and overcome by our predecessors who toiled in the factories, marched in the streets, and passed the torch to future generations in the labor movement.
President John F. Kennedy once noted that, “As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”
In honor of the sacrifices of so many who came before us, fought for their families futures in the workplace and worked to put food on their table, let us give thanks and honor them by coming together as Union Brothers and Sisters. Let’s show the solidarity and brotherhood that make us unique by taking some time to help those less fortunate than us. I also ask that you consider standing by those workers who are forced to be away from their families this holiday by choosing to spend time with your own family rather than participate in any shopping sprees that miss the real meaning of Thanksgiving.
We also owe special thanks to those who have come to the aid of members who have faced tough economic times and the hardships of natural disasters. On behalf of the 216,000 members of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers, we join them in wishing all a very happy Thanksgiving.
Fraternally,
Joseph Nigro, General President
Joseph Sellers, General Secretary-Treasurer
John Previsich, President, Transportation Division

SEPTA expects to receive $350 million of the bill’s $475 million earmarked for public transportation.

The Pennsylvania state government passed a $2.3 billion transportation package that will allow SEPTA to dodge a doomsday budget that would have cut transit services throughout the region.

Last week, the General Assembly approved the plan, which includes about $475 million per year earmarked for public transportation — of which SEPTAexpects to receive about $350 million per year, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. The transit agency will use the money for sorely needed infrastructure improvements, particularly for century-old bridges on the regional rail lines.

In September, SEPTA officials prepared a contingency budget that would have been enacted if funding were not increased. It would have closed nine of the 13 regional rail lines by 2023 and replace several trolley lines with buses.

Read more at The Daily Pennsylvanian.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – A judge on Nov. 25 tore up California’s funding plans for what would be the nation’s first bullet train, issuing separate orders that could force the state to spend months or years redrawing its plans for the $68 billion rail line and could choke off some of its funding.

Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Michael Kenny rejected a request from the California High-Speed Rail Authority to sell $8 billion of the $10 billion in bonds approved by voters in 2008, saying there was no evidence it was “necessary and desirable” to start selling the bonds when a committee of state officials met last March.

Read the complete story at the Associated Press.

OSAGE CITY, Mo. – The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph C. Szabo Nov. 25 participated in the ribbon cutting ceremony for a new railroad bridge that will eliminate the last chokepoint along the line between Jefferson City and St. Louis. The $28 million project received $22.6 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding under the U.S. Department of Transportation’s High-Speed and Intercity Passenger Rail Program and was the largest ARRA project in the state of Missouri. Administrator Szabo joined Missouri Department of Transportation Director Dave Nichols, officials from Amtrak and Union Pacific Railroad and other dignitaries at the event.

“Railroads play a key role in our ability to move both people and goods, a need that will only increase in the coming decades,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “The Obama Administration is committed to working with transportation leaders like Governor Nixon and Senator McCaskill, to make sure the nation’s rail system is efficient, reliable and supportive of economic growth.”

The new Union Pacific Railroad bridge spanning the Osage River will reduce delays for more than 600 passengers traveling on Amtrak’s Missouri River Runner and the 60 freight trains that currently operate over the 283-mile Kansas City to St. Louis Corridor each day. On the old bridge, passenger and freight trains would often have to wait until a train coming from the opposite direction cleared.

With the addition of the new 1,200-foot structure, located just east of Jefferson City in Osage County, the rail corridor between St. Louis and Jefferson City now consists entirely of two mainline tracks that will allow Amtrak passenger trains and freight trains to pass through the area unimpeded. As a result, the region’s four Missouri River Runner trains will see faster, more reliable service.

“This new railroad bridge is yet another strategic investment in our rail infrastructure that will allow for higher performing passenger rail – while also laying a foundation to invest in faster, more frequent, and even more reliable service,” said Administrator Szabo. “It also advances the Midwest Regional Rail Initiative – a vision Missouri shares with eight other states to connect the Midwest’s 40 largest cities with high-performance passenger rail.”

The Federal Railroad Administration, along with its 32 state partners and the District of Columbia, is laying the foundation for a higher performance rail network. Sixty-five projects worth $4.1 billion in High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail Program funding are currently completed, under construction, or will soon start construction in 20 states and the District of Columbia. Bringing safe, reliable, convenient, and affordable intercity passenger rail to the U.S. will create jobs, increase economic development opportunities, promote energy efficiency and relieve congestion.

Tags Menges

U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) will introduce Dec. 4 legislation to fund U.S. transportation infrastructure in the nation now and into the future.
The two bills will establish a series of pilot projects to further study the application of a vehicle-miles-traveled fee and establish a 15-cents-per-gallon increase to the federal gas tax.
“Increased vehicle-fuel efficiency allows for increased demands on our transportation system without contributing as much to its maintenance. An analysis by the Congressional Budget Office based on current driving patterns demonstrates the newest fuel economy standards for automobiles will result in a 21 percent reduction in Highway Trust Fund revenue by 2040,” Blumenauer said.
“There are already significant funding challenges. Congress has transferred $55 billion in general fund revenues to the Highway Trust Fund to avoid bankruptcy since 2009. When the current authorization expires, the Highway Trust Fund will require almost $15 billion a year in addition to existing gas tax receipts, merely to maintain 2009 funding levels.
“Our failure to adequately fund transportation infrastructure imposes huge costs on American citizens and businesses. Last year, congestion cost urban Americans $87.2 billion a year in time wasted sitting in traffic, and higher transportation costs have pushed logistics costs to nearly 10 percent of our gross domestic product. A recent analysis by the American Society of Civil Engineers suggests that the cost of our declining transportation system could result in the loss of 876,000 jobs by 2020. Until we tie our transportation revenues to our transportation demands, this situation will worsen.”
The National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission noted that a vehicle-miles-traveled charge is the “the most promising alternative revenue measure” to our existing gas tax, while the National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission reported that “a charge for each mile driven . . . has emerged as the consensus choice for the future.” Both commissions found that this system was efficient at raising revenue.
A number of states, including Oregon, Nevada, Minnesota, Iowa, Texas, and New York have tested pilot projects where they charged drivers for the number of miles they traveled rather than the fuel they consumed. The tests have proved convenient for drivers, demonstrated strong protections for personal privacy, and have been easily administrable.
A recent GAO report on this subject noted, “Should Congress wish to explore mileage fees as a mechanism for funding surface transportation, it should consider establishing a pilot program to evaluate the viability, costs, and benefits of mileage fee systems . . . .”
The Road User Fee Pilot Project establishes a competitive grant program to fund VMT pilot projects that will help answer outstanding questions about privacy, implementation, and equity. These projects will help answer Congress’s outstanding questions, and provide a variety of models from which best practices can be determined.
Blumenauer will hold a press conference Dec. 4 at 10:30 a.m. in room 201 of the Capitol Visitor Center (HVC-201) to announce the proposed legislation.

Tags Blumenauer