SMART UnionCHICAGO – An eight-car Chicago commuter train plowed across a platform and scaled an escalator at an underground station at one of the nation’s busiest airports early Monday, injuring 32 people on board, officials said.
No one suffered life-threatening injuries in the Blue Line derailment at O’Hare International Airport, Chicago Fire Commissioner Jose Santiago said during a morning briefing.
Read the complete story at the Associated Press.
PUEBLO, Colo. – A bill to save Amtrak’s Southwest Chief rail line through Southeastern Colorado passed the state House March 19, Pueblo County Commissioner Sal Pace said.
HB14-1161, sponsored by Rep. Leroy Garcia, D-Pueblo, passed on a 44-20 vote.
Read the complete story at The Pueblo Chieftain.
WASHINGTON – Amtrak invites America to celebrate the many benefits trains bring to the nation at the seventh annual National Train Day on May 10, 2014. Trains are an integral part of daily American life and connect communities, provide jobs and economic development, support local businesses and attract funds for infrastructure improvement. From big cities to small towns, coast to coast and border to border, trains matter.
In addition to events in Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Chicago and Los Angeles, Amtrak is supporting events in many local markets across the country served by America’s Railroad. Event offerings will vary to include train equipment displays, family-friendly activities and local dignitaries.
“Trains have long been important to the growth and prosperity of our nation and today Amtrak supports our national economy and connectivity by moving America where it wants to go,” said Amtrak President and CEO Joe Boardman.
“Amtrak is America’s Railroad. Trains came first, long before the interstate and the airport,” said Mayor Todd Barton of Crawfordsville, Ind. “From a presidential candidate campaigning across the country to a young scholar leaving home for school, trains take us where we need to go. They are important and should be celebrated.”
Boardman added that rail travel is a vital transportation alternative that is cost-efficient, environmentally friendly and in high public demand. In addition, intercity passenger trains matter because they connect rural communities with major metropolitan areas and afford passengers more than 500 destinations – an option that has become increasingly important as airline and bus companies reduce service to significant regions of America.
Details on National Train Day events and information on how to host a National Train Day event are available at NationalTrainDay.com.
The Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad plan to install inward-facing and outward-facing video cameras and audio recorders on most of their trains, MTA officials said.
In response to calls from federal investigators for stepped-up safety measures on two of the busiest commuter rail systems in the country, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced Wednesday that it intends to put out a request for proposal to find a vendor to design, manufacture and install the recording technology on newer LIRR and Metro-North electrical passenger cars and all locomotives.
Read the complete story at Newsday.
Are you a truck driver or shift worker planning to catch up on some sleep this weekend?
Cramming in extra hours of shut-eye may not make up for those lost pulling all-nighters, new research indicates.
The damage may already be done – brain damage, that is, said neuroscientist Sigrid Veasey from the University of Pennsylvania.
Read the complete story at CNN.
Darrell Wade, sheet metal shop foreman at Pierce and Associates in Alexandria, Va., has been selected as a recipient of SMOHIT’s 2013 Safety Award, joining previous 2013 winners Kurt Christiansen of Southeastern Wisconsin, Ed Hoganson of St. Louis, Roger Fewkes of San Diego, Local 33 in Cleveland, RHP Mechanical Systems in Reno, Nev., and C&R Mechanical in St. Louis.
Wade used his knowledge and facility to collaborate with SMOHIT and MetaMedia Training International to create e-learning safety training programs and DVDs. “Four High Hazards,” “Stressors in the Workplace” and “Safety Orientation” were created to give workers more information about how to ensure their safety in the workplace.
“Darrell and the crew at Pierce are always willing to help us with whatever we need to get the right shot, whether it’s safely operating a forklift, welding in a confined space or showing proper hoisting and rigging techniques,” SMOHIT Industrial Hygienist Charles Austin said. “MetaMedia Training International has always felt comfortable when calling on Pierce Associates for safety programs developed for SMOHIT.”
The federal government needs to do a top-to-bottom review of the Long Island Rail Road to see if it is “rotten” and rife with safety problems like its sister agency, the Metro-North Railroad, Sen. Charles Schumer said Tuesday, March 18.
The Federal Railroad Administration last week released a scathing report describing lax supervision, subpar training and other problems at Metro-North. The report was the result of an intensive 60-day review prompted by a spate of Metro-North accidents, including the Dec. 1 derailment in the Bronx that killed four passengers and injured more than 70 others.
Read the complete story at the New York Daily News.
WASHINGTON – In its Fiscal Year 2015 budget request to Congress, Amtrak is seeking a change in federal passenger rail investment and warns that continuation of current funding levels leave Northeast Corridor infrastructure vulnerable to a bigger, costlier and far more damaging failure than anything yet seen.
“Infrastructure deterioration and changes in business patterns have reached a point where something has to change,” said President and CEO Joe Boardman. “If America wants a modern intercity passenger rail system, the problems of policy and funding must be addressed.”
“Increased ridership, enhanced operating performance and stronger financial management are part of an improving Amtrak. It is time to consider a new paradigm for federal financial support,” said Tony Coscia, Amtrak board chairman. “The reality is that status quo federal funding levels put the Northeast Corridor infrastructure at increased risk of major failure with serious economic consequences for the nation.”
“The nation cannot afford to let a railroad that carries half of Amtrak’s trains and 80 percent of the nation’s rail commuters fall apart,” Boardman stressed, noting the NEC is vital to the mobility, connectivity and economy of the entire Northeast region.
Boardman explained a new federal policy and funding arrangement should create a significant and reliable multi-year capital investment program to reverse the decay of NEC infrastructure and support other intercity passenger rail projects. A strong federal commitment will allow Amtrak to plan and implement major multi-year projects such as replacing century-old NEC bridges and tunnels, and make critical capacity improvements such as the Gateway Program between New Jersey and New York.
Boardman said that NEC revenues exceed operating costs by more than $300 million a year and are today used to cover some costs of state-supported and long-distance trains. To provide additional funding for NEC improvements, Congress should fully fund the operating and capital needs of the long-distance routes so the NEC revenues can be reinvested in the NEC.
By dedicating NEC revenue to meet NEC needs, it could be leveraged to pay for debt service on loans to address the most urgent NEC infrastructure issues. It also could be used to finance other funding solutions such as public-private partnerships, grants of assistance, and state and commuter rail agreements.
Boardman said long-distance trains have been a core federal responsibility since 1971, and Congress should fulfill its obligation by funding their full cost. Long-distance trains form the backbone of the Amtrak national system, connect small towns to major cities, support local economic development, deliver passengers to state-supported corridor trains and conduct interstate trade and commerce. They are vital to the communities and people they serve, and increasingly important as airlines and bus companies abandon significant regions of America.
“It is clear that Americans want a national system of intercity passenger rail, and will continue to use it in greater numbers if we can provide it,” said Boardman. “Our work over the past decade proves this, but to maintain and improve that system will require both an increase in the overall capital levels and a real federal commitment to deliver the needed financing.”
For Fiscal Year 2015, Amtrak is requesting $1.62 billion in federal capital and operating support, an increase of approximately 16 percent from Fiscal Year 2014 federal appropriations.
A NEC Infrastructure Advisory Commission report details the growing risk to critical NEC infrastructure. A copy of the Amtrak FY 2015 budget request is attached.
Constituents in Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky and eight congressional districts – Pa. Dist. 9, Iowa Dist. 3, Colo. Dist. 4, Kan. Dist. 1, Kan. Dist. 2, Ill. Dist. 13, Ind. Dist. 4 and Mo. Dist. 8 – overwhelmingly disapprove increasing truck weight limits from the current 80,000 pounds to 97,000 pounds. Increasing truck weights range from a low of only 13 percent in Illinois to 19 percent in Colo. Dist. 4 (eastern Colorado). The research data from 5,080 interviews conducted between March 2013 to March 2014 clearly indicate that regardless of where you live, what your political viewpoint may be, or your gender and age, there is a convergence of opinion that heavier trucks are not wanted on U.S. Highways.
View the results of this survey by DFM Research conducted on behalf of the SMART Transportation Division.
Fort Worth-based BNSF Railway plans to hire 5,000 workers this year as part of a $5 billion investment in the railroad, Carl Ice, the company’s new president and CEO, said this morning during an interview on CNBC.
Ice, who recently took over the CEO post from Matt Rose, said the new jobs will be spread across the railroad’s many functions but that the biggest number will be in train crews to serve its growing business. The company is also adding 500 locomotives and recently announced plans to purchase 5,000 next-generation tank cars to haul crude oil from fields such as the Bakken Shale.
Read the complete story at The Star-Telegram.