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PLATTSBURG, Ohio — Call it hamburger helper after a Norfolk Southern freight train plowed into a herd of cattle on the tracks here near Columbus, killing some 20 of the Black Angus cows, reports the Associated Press.

The Associated Press quoted a NS engineer that his train of 122 freight cars and two locomotives, traveling 38 mph, could not stop in time.

No, the freight cars were not carrying ketchup.

It was not reported how the cows got loose from a nearby ranch and wandered onto the NS right-of-way.

After a lifetime of hard work, SMART TD rail, bus and airline members look forward to a secure retirement.

In an ideal world, it would be that simple. In the real world, careful planning and attention to detail are essential.

Topping the list of retirement concerns are money and healthcare insurance, but you also must present certain documentation prior to receiving benefits.

Sources of income

As a rule of thumb, between 70 and 80% of pre-retirement income is needed to enjoy a comfortable retirement, says the Social Security Administration.

Neither Railroad Retirement (covering career railroad workers), Social Security nor CalPERS (covering certain California public transit agency workers) was intended to be a retirees’ sole source of income, and thus will replace only about 40%t of pre-retirement income, says the Social Security Administration.

Railroad Retirement, Social Security and CalPERS retirement benefits should be thought of as part of a three-legged financial security stool — the other two legs to include other investments, such as your home equity, certificates of deposit, individual retirement accounts (IRAs), a 401(k) savings plan and whole life insurance.

Those taking early retirement, or retiring on a disability, may be eligible for certain supplemental benefits until they reach full retirement age. If you are retiring early, you should determine from your employer, Medicare and/or Railroad Retirement, Social Security or CalPERS, what supplemental benefits may be available to you.

Monthly benefits

Railroad Retirement and Social Security annuitants and their spouses will receive monthly benefit electronic deposits directly from the federal government.

Whether it’s Railroad Retirement, Social Security or CalPERS, those agencies will respond to your request for estimates of monthly retirement benefits available to you and your spouse. One of your first pre-retirement chores should be to obtain this estimate because those benefits will be the foundation of your post-retirement income. You may also wish to speak with a certified financial planner, and/or a UTUIA regional insurance manager, about post-retirement financial issues.

Time to retire

Filing for retirement benefits — and investigating Medicare health care options – should begin at least three months prior to your planned retirement date.

Filing for benefits generally is accomplished by visiting a Railroad Retirement, Social Security or CalPERS field office, where you will be asked to provide various documents necessary for the processing of retirement benefits payable to you and your spouse. Information on the location of field offices may be obtained by calling the toll-free telephone numbers listed here.

During the pre-retirement interview, you may determine that there is an advantage to you or your spouse waiting a little longer to draw retirement benefits. Be sure to enquire about limitations on post-retirement earnings, and how such earnings may reduce Railroad Retirement, Social Security or CalPERS benefits.

With some advance planning and attention to detail, the transition from employment to retirement should be smooth sailing. The best time to begin the process is now!

To apply for Railroad Retirement or Social Security benefits, you must provide certain information, and it is suggested you begin the process at least three months prior to your anticipated retirement date.

You will need the following information to register successfully for benefits:

  • Proof of age: An original birth certificate or a certified copy (not a photocopy). If a birth certificate is not available, the Railroad Retirement Board or Social Security will advise you how to proceed.
  • Proof of marriage: An original or a certified copy (not a photocopy) of the marriage certificate.
  • Proof of military service. To be eligible for military credits, you will need a copy of your discharge papers (DD-214). Note: When you were discharged, you likely were encouraged to file a copy of your DD-214 with the recorder of deeds in your hometown.
  • A copy of your most recent IRS form W-2 from your employer (filed with your tax return).

Railroad employees contemplating retirement are eligible to receive a “Retirement Made Easy” kit from UnitedHealthcare. To obtain the kit, rail employees should call UnitedHealthcare at (800) 842-5252.

Also, if you have dependent children, you should have available original or certified copies of their birth certificates.

Financial fraud can empty your life savings. Here are 10 steps suggested by best-selling author Charles Murray.

  1. Every deal is a potential scam: Recognize that fraud is an act of deceit by one party intended to induce another to part with something of value.
  2. Map out your goals before shopping or investing: There’s a difference between “buying” and “being sold.”
  3. Avoid mixing business with pleasure: According to the National Institute of Justice, the attempt to defraud is more successful if a person knows or knows of the offender.
  4. Don’t get greedy: Remain calm and dispassionate.
  5. Be suspicious of “inside information,” “hot tips” and “one-time offers”: Why you instead of Tom-Dick-and-Harry?
  6. Educate yourself: Beware of getting all your information from the seller.
  7. Double check all facts: A cheat doesn’t want himself or his deal scrutinized.
  8. Don’t wilt when the heat is turned up: It takes a secure person to say “no” to pressure and manipulation.
  9. A promise is only as good as the person behind it.
  10. Scams copy the same methods used in legitimate business dealings: Spotting the difference can be difficult.

Five tell-tale signs:

  • Something is promised that borders between reasonable and “too good to be true”;
  • Victims typically know or know of the swindler;
  • A sense of urgency exists;
  • A cheat doesn’t want himself or the deal scrutinized;
  • High-pressure sales tactics are used.

There are many investment instruments including your own UTUIA annuities for SMART TD members that are available in which to place retirement funds that can provide the necessary security and still provide a cash stream in retirement years.

In speaking with a financial adviser, find out what their experience has been. Check their credentials and demand other client references. Never write a check directly to an individual. Your payment should be to the investment firm or to the investment fund itself. A request for direct payment to an individual is a big red flag!

Remember, your retirement funds represent a lifetime of savings, and there is no “do-over.”

Here’s a list of articles on how to recognize a scam or fraud:

Here are some resources to help if you are a victim of a scam or fraud:

How long will you live after you retire, and will you have enough money to live on comfortably?

Good question. That’s why – before you retire – you should think about post-retirement economic security, because few things could be worse than money running out during what are supposed to be carefree years.

A balanced retirement portfolio should resemble a three-legged stool.

The first leg is your Tier I Railroad Retirement, Social Security or CalPERS (the California retirement system for public employees), plus Tier II Railroad Retirement and/or an employer pension.

The second leg is the equity in your home, plus your personal savings, such as certificates of deposit and mutual funds.

The third leg of this financial stool are annuities, IRAs, 401(k) plans and whole life insurance.

These three financial legs are the assets to support you through retirement. The fewer legs, or the lower value of any legs, could mean a less secure financial situation during retirement.

Determining available assets before you retire is essential. You may, for example, choose to wait another year or two before retiring and build up assets in one or more legs of your financial stool.

Younger members are wise to consider these financial legs long before they retire.

The UTUIA can help build the third leg of your financial stool prior to, and even during, retirement.

UTUIA whole life policies provide a death benefit while accumulating cash value. The death benefit protects your surviving family if you die; and the cash value becomes a source of tax-deferred savings available during your retirement years.

UTUIA annuities and individual retirement accounts (IRAs) earn guaranteed interest that is tax deferred until you draw down the balance. You may invest in UTUIA annuities up to age 85.

Existing IRAs and/or employer 401(k) plans may be rolled over into a UTUIA IRA.

To learn how the UTUIA can help make your retirement more secure, talk with a UTUIA regional insurance manager, call the UTUIA toll-free line at (800) 558-8842, or click here.

Medicare is the primary health insurance for retirees and their spouses. It is available for those over age 65, those under 65 with certain disabilities, and those of any age with permanent kidney failure. It consists of Parts A, B, C and D.

Part A helps cover inpatient care in hospitals and a skilled nursing facility, hospice and home health care.

Part B helps cover doctors’ services, hospital outpatient care and home health care, as well as some preventive services to help maintain your health and to keep certain illnesses from getting worse.

Part C is a Medicare advantage plan similar to an HMO or PPO — health plans run by Medicare-approved private insurance companies. Medicare advantage plans generally include Parts A, B and D.

Part D is a prescription drug program provided by a Medicare-approved private insurance company to help cover the cost of prescription drugs.

You should enroll in Medicare Parts A, B and D when you are first eligible. If you delay enrollment, you will be subject to additional costs for the coverage.

Railroad employees should call the Railroad Retirement Board’s toll-free information line at 877-772-5772 for enrollment and other information, or Palmetto GBA at 800-833-4455.

Non-railroad employees should call Medicare at 800-633-4227, or visit https://www.medicare.gov.

Medicare can send you a handbook, “Medicare & You,” explaining all aspects of Medicare, or the handbook may be ordered or downloaded at the Medicare website.

WASHINGTON — In a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) published in the Nov. 10 Federal Register, the Federal Railroad Administration proposes to make Jan. 1, 2012, the effective date for implementation of conductor certification.

The rulemaking on principles, elements and methods of conductor certification was ordered by Congress in the 2008 Rail Safety Improvement Act.

The NPRM — preceding publication of a final rule, expected in early 2011 (ahead of implementation) — was developed through the FRA’s Rail Safety Advisory Committee (RSAC), comprised of stakeholders, including affected labor unions, railroads, suppliers, manufacturers and FRA safety experts.

The various stakeholders had many conflicting objectives for the rulemaking, and the NPRM is a consensus document that required compromise among all stakeholders.

The UTU was represented on the RSAC Conductor Certification Working Group by a team appointed by International President Mike Futhey:

  • * Local 1470 Chairperson Director David Brooks
  • General Chairperson (GO 049) John Lesniewski
  • UTU Training Coordinator and Local 528 Legislative Representative Ron Parsons
  • National Legislative Director James Stem
  • Alternate National Legislative Director John Risch
  • Local 645 Chairperson Vinnie Tessitore
  • UTU Rail Safety Coordinator for Designated Legal Counsel Larry Mann

The UTU will respond to NPRM with recommendations for improvement and change in the final rule — as will all stakeholders. The FRA will make the sole determination as to contents of the final rule.

Following are major provisions of the rulemaking. A link to a more detailed summary of the 53-page NPRM is provided at the end of this article.

  • Conductors who must be certified are defined as “the crewmember in charge of a train or yard crew.”
  • Trains are defined as freight and passenger trains on railroads that connect to the national rail network.
  • Conductor certification does not cover assistant conductors, brakemen, yard helpers, switchmen, utility men, switch tenders, flagmen or others not in charge of a crew.
  • Railroads must implement a formal process — to be approved by the FRA — for training conductors and determining they are competent.
  • To be qualified for certification, a conductor must successfully complete all instruction, training and examination programs required by the carrier. Conductors must also meet minimum federal safety standards, including minimum hearing and vision standards.
  • Passenger train conductors must have received emergency preparedness training to be certified.
  • Current conductors will automatically be certified (grandfathered).
  • Conductors may be decertified for between 30 days and three years, depending on the number of violations.
  • Conductors will be required to notify the railroad if convicted of operating a motor vehicle under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and will be decertified if found to have an active substance disorder.
  • Decertification may also take place when FRA safety regulations are violated (such as failing to take appropriate action to ensure a locomotive engineer adheres to train speed limits and signals and signposts, or fails to perform or have knowledge that a required brake test was performed).
  • Decertified engineers will not be allowed to work as a certified conductor while decertified, nor will decertified conductors be allowed to work as certified engineers. An exception is that a conductor, decertified for violating a 49 CFR Part 218 safety regulation, will be able to work as a certified engineer.
  • If the railroad permits, a decertified engineer or decertified conductor may work, for example, as a brakeman, a passenger train assistant conductor, or in another non-certified position.
  • If the railroad permits, decertification time may be used for retraining.
  • All crews are required to have a certified conductor assigned. The NPRM is crew consist neutral, but provides that a lone engineer must be certified as both an engineer and a conductor, or be accompanied by a certified conductor.
  • The process for appealing decertification can be extremely lengthy, and require an attorney-at-law. Mann cites a decertification he is challenging — involving an engineer — that has now dragged into its fifth year. Mann said streamlining the appeals process, before the final rule goes into effect, will be among the top priorities of the UTU.

Although conductor certification carries the risk of decertification, the UTU RSAC Conductor Certification Working Group said certification will enhance the proficiency of UTU members, making them ever more professional and indispensable.

Collective bargaining, not the FRA rulemaking, will determine whether a certified conductor receives additional pay.

Click here to read the 53-page Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.

Click here for a more detailed summary of the NPRM. 

Union Pacific will increase its capital spending by 25 percent to $3.25 billion in 2011, reports the Journal of Commerce.

UP capital exenditures in 2010 totaled $2.6 billion.

UP said it will be purchasing as many as 200 new locomotives in 2011, upgrade numerous corridors to accommodate double-stack container cars, and replace a 100-year-old bridge across the Mississippi River at Clinton, Iowa, the Journal of Commerce reported.

Intermodal traffic (trailers and containers carried atop flatcars) continues to roar for Class I railroads.

During October, according to the Association of American Railroads, intermodal traffic soared by 14 percent versus October 2009.

Weekly during October, according to the AAR, Class I railroads transported an average of more than 235,000 trailers and containers – the highest weekly totals for any month since October 2007.

In fact, October 2010 was the 12th highest weekly monthly average on record, the AAR said.

WASHINGTON — One of first transportation challenges for federal rail transportation-project advocates — Democrats and Republicans — in the new Congress in 2011 will be how to preserve and allocate seed money for rail transit and high-speed rail projects.

Billions of dollars in congressionally directed dollars for rail transit and high-speed rail projects in New Jersey, Ohio and Wisconsin are expected to be returned to the federal treasury by Republican governors who have cancelled — or intend to cancel — such projects in those states.

In New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie, citing serious state budget problems, already has canceled a proposed new rail tunnel under the Hudson River linking New Jersey and New York City, which was intended to ease train congestion in the current, century-old Hudson rail tunnel. Some $3 billion in federal money for that almost $10 billion project will be returned to Washington.

Newly elected Republican governors in Wisconsin (Scott Walker) and Ohio (John Kasich) have criticized federally funded high-speed rail projects proposed for their states, meaning $810 million in federal grants already sent to Wisconsin, and $400 million in federal grants already sent to Ohio, could be making a round-trip back to Washington.

But that doesn’t mean federal funding for rail transit and high-speed rail is dead. It may mean the already allocated funds for New Jersey, Ohio and Wisconsin — when returned to Washington — will be redirected to other rail projects in other states.

As the Economist magazine points out, the presumed new Republican chairman of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee — Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) — is actually an advocate of “some” federally funded rail projects: projects, that, in Mica’s opinion, make economic sense. That term, of course, is one of art and not one of precision.

For example, Mica already has endorsed upgrading Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor linking Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Boston.

In fact, Amtrak President Joseph Boardman, a Republican and previously George W. Bush’s federal railroad administrator, already has outlined a plan to rebuild — at a cost of $117 billion — much of the Northeast Corridor to accommodate high-speed trains that could travel between Boston and New York in 84 minutes, and between New York and Washington, D.C., in 96 minutes. To learn more about that project, click on this link:

https://www.smart-union.org/news/amtraks-vision-for-n-e-corridor-bold-fast-6/

Mica also is supportive of high-speed rail in his own state, although he has suggested it be a less ambitious project, perhaps linking only Tampa with Orlando rather than extending south to Miami.

On Nov. 7, Amtrak’s Boardman announced an agreement with French National Railways and Bechtel Infrastructure Corp. to bid for the contract to design, build, operate, maintain and finance Florida’s planned high-speed rail line between Tampa and Orlando. 

Mica has yet to weigh in on California’s high-speed rail ambitions, linking San Diego with Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento — a $40 billion project that already has received some $2 billion in federal seed money.

A Reuters report said Mica, as T&I Committee chairman, intends to reevaluate the Obama administration’s $10 billion in high-speed rail awards.

Mica is quoted as saying, “We had unelected officials sitting behind closed doors making decisions without any hearings or without any elected officials being consulted.” Reuters also quoted Mica as saying he wants to rely less on direct federal spending for high-speed rail and more on public-private partnerships.

Said the Economist magazine, “It will be interesting to see whether the Obama administration can convince the lame-duck Democratic congress to reassign the money or whether the GOP-run House [in 2011] will try to cancel the spending entirely.”

Mica will play a crucial role in that decision making.

If you want to voice your support for the Ohio and Wisconsin high-speed rail projects, click on the following link:

StandUpforTrains.org