Year: 2014

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Railroad employees covered under National Railway Carriers/UTU Health and Welfare Plan or the Railroad Employees’ National Health and Welfare Plan were mailed a notification of the online open enrollment period that began Oct. 1, 2014, and ends Nov. 1, 2014. The information should be specific to the current enrollment for you and your eligible dependents.yourtracktohealth

The online enrollment capability provides the ability to view your personal information, add, delete and update dependent information, view enrollment materials, enroll in benefits for next year, and receive an immediate confirmation statement. There is no need to mail in a paper enrollment form. However, if you need assistance, have questions or require a paper enrollment kit, call Railroad Enrollment Services at (800) 753-2692.

The enrollment website can be found at https://www.yourtracktohealth.com (formerly known as the Railroad Information Depot).

You are encouraged to visit the online enrollment site and review all the information available. Use the log-in instructions at the end of this article to access and review your personal information and spend some time learning about the benefits and resources available on the site.

You will also be able to search medical provider networks.

It is required that covered dependent Social Security numbers (SSN) be provided to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Please supply the missing SSN on the Dependent Information screen.

If you are currently enrolled in the Health Flexible Spending Account, the election and yearly contribution will not rollover to the new plan year. You must enroll in your Health Flexible Spending Account every year.

  • Click “Login” located in the upper right corner of the screen.
  • If you have already registered, enter your username and password.
  • If you have not yet registered, select “New User?” at the bottom of the screen to complete your registration.

Once logged in, select the option to “Enroll Now for 2015,” located in the upper left corner of the screen.

 

cp-logo-240Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. (CP) plans to more than double profit in four years as Chief Executive Officer Hunter Harrison seeks to improve efficiency by running longer, faster trains at Canada’s second-largest railroad.

Revenue will probably climb to C$10 billion ($9 billion) in 2018 from last year’s C$6.1 billion, the Calgary-based railroad said yesterday in a statement. Harrison discussed the forecast as he addressed analysts and investors in White Plains, New York, at the start of a two-day briefing.

Read the complete story at Bloomberg Businessweek.

BNSF_Color_LogoOf 3,679 ballots returned, 3,056 were in opposition to the crew consist agreement. Nearly the same number of ballots cast were in opposition to a wage and rule settlement offered by the carrier.

Under the proposal, engineers would have received a pay boost, and conductors would have been given the opportunity to become engineers. It also called for the creation of a “master conductor,” who would be responsible for supervising multiple trains from a fixed or mobile location.

The railroad was seeking to operate most of its trains with a single engineer on trains equipped with positive train control, a collision-avoidance system mandated by Congress in 2008.

It maintained that trains carrying hazardous materials, including those with large volumes of crude oil or ethanol, would still have operated with two people on board.

Prior to releasing the complete vote count Sept. 29, GO 001 General Chairperson Randy Knutson had acknowledged earlier in September that the proposal had failed.

“Please be advised that we have completed the tabulation of ratification ballots for the tentative crew consist agreement and wage and rule settlement, and neither agreement was ratified. A more complete summary of the vote will be forthcoming in the next several weeks, but we felt it was important to provide our members with immediate notification that these agreements were not ratified,” Knutson said.

“Moving forward, this office will notify BNSF Labor Relations that we remain open to informal conversation regarding these matters, but will oppose any formal attempt by BNSF to serve notice to change our existing crew consist agreements prior to the attrition of all protected employees.”

The proposed agreement generated a lot of discussion from Transportation Division members around the country.

In a statement posted on the SMART Transportation Division’s website prior to the voting deadline, Transportation Division President John Previsich noted that, “Our constitution grants the general committees jurisdiction in this area and this organization has successfully defended that right over the years through litigation and arbitration. There are no grounds for any entity to interfere with that right and there will be no attack on that authority by this office or any subordinate body of this organization.

“Nonetheless, it should surprise no one that the proposed agreement is generating a great deal of discussion due to its potential impact beyond its own territory. This office will not interfere with the rights of all of our members to engage in that discussion.”

A soybean farmer from southwestern Minnesota and an official of a taconite mine in the northeast, and more than a dozen others, came to the same conclusion: Significant railroad delays throughout the Upper Midwest are hurting nearly everyone in business.

Bill Gordon, who farms near Worthington, told a joint meeting of five Minnesota legislative committees Tuesday that the state should consider allowing heavier trucks on Minnesota roads and shippers should make more use of Duluth’s harbor to ease a crush on railroads.

Read the complete story at TwinCities.com.

More than 2.7 billion trips were taken on U.S. public transportation in the second quarter of 2014, according to a report released Sept. 29 by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA). This is a 1.1 percent increase over the same quarter last year, representing an increase of 30 million more trips. Public transportation ridership outpaced urban vehicle miles traveled (VMT) which grew at 0.97 percent for this quarter.

Noting that in five of the last eight quarters, ridership on U.S. public transportation has increased, APTA President and CEO Michael Melaniphy said, “Public transportation ridership continues to grow nationally, showing that federal investment in public transit is paying off. With greater travel options, peoples’ lives improve and communities grow.”

Pointing to public transit systems in Austin, Texas; Denver, Minneapolis, Salt Lake City and Seattle, Melaniphy said, “Some public transit systems saw significant ridership, even record ridership increases on lines and extensions that have opened in the past five years. This shows that if you expand public transportation options with new services, additional people will decide to use public transportation.”

MetroRail, the commuter rail line for Austin, Texas, reached record ridership for the second quarter. Its ridership has quadrupled since it was launched in 2010. With the new light rail system that opened in April 2013 in Denver light rail ridership reached record numbers with an increase of 8.1 percent in the second quarter. Seattle’s five year old light rail line saw another record quarter with a quarterly ridership increase of 17 percent, marking 20 consecutive quarters of double digit growth.

Ridership reached record numbers in several systems across the country. For example, Capital District Transportation Authority (Albany, N.Y.), Spokane Transit (Spokane, Wash.) and Stark Area Regional Transit Authority (Canton, Ohio), saw quarterly record ridership numbers, as did San Mateo County’s commuter rail line Caltrain (San Carlos, Calif.). The Long Island Rail Road saw the highest ridership for the month of June since June 2008 when gas prices were very high.

Ridership increases were due to a number of factors including high gas prices and recovering local economies. Nationally, the average cost of a gallon of gas in the second quarter was $3.75.

2014 Second Quarter Ridership Breakdown:

Nationally, heavy rail ridership increased by 3.2 percent. Cities with heavy rail systems showing the highest percentage of increases were located in the following cities: Boston (7.0 percent); Chicago (5.5 percent); New York, NY-MTA New York City Transit (3.9 percent); New York, NY-MTA Staten Island Railway (2.9 percent); Cleveland, Ohio (2.8 percent); and San Francisco (2.0 percent).

Overall, light rail ridership increased by 2.8 percent in the second quarter of 2014. Light rail in Oceanside, Calif., saw a triple digit increase of 160 percent since the system was shut down from March-May 2013. Light rail systems in the following cities saw double digit increases in the second quarter: San Diego (28.8 percent) Minneapolis (16.5 percent); Seattle (14.4 percent); and Houston (13 percent). Other light rail systems showing significant percentage of increases were located in the following cities: Denver (8.1%); Charlotte, N.C. (7.1 percent); Salt Lake City (6.8 percent); Newark, N.J. (5.2 percent); and Hampton, Va. (4.4 percent).

Ridership on commuter rail systems increased by 3.1 percent in the second quarter. The following cities saw double digit increases in the second quarter of 2014: Salt Lake City (18.6 percent); Stockton, Calif. (17.0 percent); Lewisville, Texas (15.5 percent); Dallas-Ft. Worth (13.4 percent); Portland, Ore. (12.2 percent); and San Carlos, Calif. (10.0 percent). The following cities also experienced a ridership increase on light rail in the second quarter: Seattle (7.4 percent); Anchorage (6.9 percent); Boston (6.0 percent); Oceanside, Calif. (5.7 percent); Newark, N.J. (5.6 percent); and Austin, Texas (3.3 percent).

Bus ridership decreased nationally by 1.2 percent, although in cities with populations of less than two million, bus ridership increased.

Demand response (paratransit) increased in the second quarter of 2014 by 2.2 percent. Trolleybus ridership decreased by 3.8 percent.

To see the complete APTA ridership report go to: http://www.apta.com/resources/statistics/Documents/Ridership/2014-q2-ridership-APTA.pdf.

oil-train-railThe oil and railroad industries are urging federal regulators to allow them as long as seven years to retrofit existing tank cars that transport highly volatile crude oil, a top oil industry official said Tuesday (Sept. 30). The cars have ruptured and spilled oil during collisions, leading to intense fires.

Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute, told reporters that the institute and the Association of American Railroads were jointly asking the Transportation Department for six months to 12 months for rail tank car manufacturers to gear up to retrofit tens of thousands of cars and another three years to retrofit older cars.

Read the complete Associated Press story at ABC News.

WASHINGTON — How many people does it take to safely operate a freight train?

Two, say railroad labor unions, the Federal Railroad Administration and some members of Congress, arguing that having just one person in the cab of a locomotive was unsafe. They cite a series of deadly accidents involving trains with a solo engineer, including last year’s disaster in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, where 47 people were killed after an oil train jumped the tracks.

One, argues the railroad industry, which counters that there’s no data to prove multiple-person crews are safer.

Read the complete story at The Fresno Bee.

In the days after a train carrying highly flammable oil to Yorktown plunged off its tracks in downtown Lynchburg, dumping 15 cars into the James River and sparking a fire so intense that emergency crews had to simply let it burn itself out, federal track inspectors found more than 20 significant defects on the rail line through that city.

On top of that, six weeks before the derailment, federal inspectors found 14 faults on the line in Lynchburg, according to Federal Railroad Administration records obtained by the Daily Press through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Read the complete story at the Daily Press.

nigrothumbThanks to all of the delegates, members, guests and staff that made the First SMART General Convention a resounding success.
I have been involved in this union for 45 years. There has never been a more outspoken, honest, and hardworking General Executive Council than the one we have now. They do what is right for this membership. They make this union. It also helps having a great partner, a general secretary-treasurer who has your back and who makes you proud every day. Joe Sellers is a great leader.
We are now one union. I know that some differences of opinion among the membership remain as in any democratic organization that respects the right of each and every member to speak freely. I will always continue to encourage discussion, debate and your input on where we go in the future.
As I told the convention delegation, we are going to fight some, and we are going to bleed some. But in the end, we’ll all bleed the same blood.
We closed the convention on Aug. 15 as one union. We are not divided and we will not let anything divide us. A house divided will fall and we will never go that way. We have a combined legacy of 270 years. We must build on what previous generations have passed to us by furthering our mission to make this union even stronger in servicing our members.
I am telling you what I told the assembled delegates at the convention. All business managers, business agents, general chairpersons and local chairpersons must realize that service to the membership must come first. Whether they are representing airline, rail, transportation or sheet metal members, our leaders must continue their duty to represent the membership to the best of their ability.
This union’s leadership will not tolerate anyone who doesn’t represent their members. You don’t have to like Joe Nigro, but you do have to like and work for your membership.
Through education, strength and unity, we will fulfill our mission to make SMART the strongest union in North America.
As I noted in my column here last month, I was never as proud of our members as I was to see our sheet metal brothers and sisters standing shoulder to shoulder with our transportation membership at a rally held by employees on the Long Island Rail Road.
It was outstanding to see sheet metal workers and transportation workers getting together and fighting together on behalf of their brothers and sisters. When I walked into that parking lot with more than 3,000 people, I was so proud.
Our membership was successful in obtaining a fair agreement with the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority and I congratulate LIRR GO 505 General Chairperson Anthony Simon and his leadership team for that outstanding effort.
We departed our first SMART convention renewed, stronger and united. We will continue to forge a new future with the dignity, integrity and the honor that went into building this great union. To read and view coverage from the First SMART General Convention, visit your union’s website at smart-union.org.
It’s all about our union, our members and our strength. Together, we are all SMART.
Joseph J. Nigro
SMART General President

It carries more passenger trains than any other railroad bridge in the Western Hemisphere, yet few people beyond those who rely on it have heard of it. It goes largely unnoticed, unless something goes wrong, which happens with irritating frequency. After all, the bridge is 104 years old.

Every time it swings open to let a boat pass is a test of early-20th-century technology that can snarl train travel from Boston to Washington, the nation’s busiest rail corridor. And over the years, because it is partially made out of wood, it also has proved to be quite flammable.

Read the complete story at The New York Times.