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NEW YORK — UTU represented Staten Island Railway (SIR) has a new vice president and chief officer, Stephone Montgomery, who succeeds John Gaul, reports railwayage.com.

Montgomery is a 27-year veteran of New York’s Metropolitan Transit Administration (MTA), the parent of SIR. The SIR’s 265 employees serve some 25,000 passengers daily at 22 stations over a 14.3 mile route.

Montgomery most recently was an MTA subway general manager, and previously was a car cleaner, locomotive engineer and then official with another MTA subsidiary, the Long Island Rail Road.

WASHINGTON — Railroads will be required by the Federal Railroad Administration to provide respirators for train and engine workers hauling hazardous materials.

The Rail Safety Improvement Act mandated that the FRA impose such a requirement through a rulemaking, which is in its final stages toward implementation.

However, the effective date could still be two years away under a draft FRA proposal that may be finalized as early as late December.

Inhalation injuries have caused two crew deaths and more than 660 injuries over the past decade, the FRA said.

The FRA proposes that the respirators be capable of protecting train and engine workers for at least 15 minutes following a release of hazmat, giving them time to escape the cab and move to safety.

The FRA proposes that Class I railroads comply with the requirement within two years of final publication of the rule, and smaller railroads would be required to comply within 30 months.

The UTU, in commenting to the FRA on the proposed rule, urged that the respirators be permanently mounted in the cab rather than railroads issuing them to train and engine service workers. The UTU said train and engine crews already carry a lot of equipment, and a permanent mounting would ensure availability of the respirators in the event of a hazmat release.

Diabetes is a lifelong disease marked by high levels of sugar in the blood. It can affect your heart, kidneys and eyes, and is the number one cause for amputation and blindness. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that one in every 10 Americans now suffers from diabetes, and as many as one in every three Americans could have diabetes by midcentury. Many Americans are not even aware they have diabetes.

November is National Diabetes month, a designation intended to raise the awareness of this disease and its serious complications.

UnitedHealthcare offers an online video series to help educate viewers about the disease and what can be done to manage it.

To view the three-part UnitedHealthcare videos, log on to:

www.diabetes.uhc4health.com

UnitedHealthcare also offers — free of charge to railroad members — additional resources and coaching as to proper nutrition and exercise to help manage diabetes. To reach a UnitedHealthcare nurse, call toll free, (888) 315-7524.

Those not covered under a UnitedHealthcare plan should contact their health care plan administrator for additional information.

Also providing information is the website of the American Diabetes Association at:

www.diabetes.org

Here are additional resources:

* Request a free copy of, “Top Five Ways to Stop Diabetes and Get Healthy Right Now” and/or “What Can I Eat,” by calling toll-free, (800) DIABETES.

* Go to www.stopdiabetes.com and click on, “Get tips to survive the holidays and other celebrations in the New Year” and other printable information articles.

* Go to www.facebook.com/AmericanDiabetesAssociation

* Twitter www.twitter.com/AmDiabetesAssn

Union Pacific has announced the following assignments to superintendent-transportation services positions, effective Nov. 15:
 
Lance Hardisty will become superintendent-transportation services, El Paso, Texas, moving from a similar position in St. Paul, Minn.
 
Rod Doerr will become superintendent-transportation services, St. Paul, Minn. He has held management posts in mechanical maintenance, terminal operations and transportation services.
 
Mike Brazytis will become superintendent-transportation services, San Antonio, Texas. He is moving from the post of superintendent of the Harriman Dispatching Center in Omaha.

BNSF Railway executive vice president Carl Ice has been promoted to the newly created position of president and chief operating officer, with responsibility for rail operations, marketing and technology, BNSF announced Nov. 1.

Ice is a former Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe executive, having held senior positions in engineering, mechanical, operations, finance and information systems.

Rail workers may now file biweekly claims for railroad sickness benefits directly online with the Railroad Retirement Board.

The agency said rail workers may now access this online service at www.rrb.gov by clicking on “Benefit Online Services.”

The RRB implemented a similar system for unemployment benefits in 2004.

First-time users must request a password request code (PRC), which they will receive by regular mail within 10 days. Those who have already established online accounts do not need to do so again.

Railroad employees who miss work due to illness or injury will still have to file a paper form that serves as their initial application for sickness benefits. Once the application is received, they will continue to receive paper-based claim forms, generally for specific 2-week periods, by regular mail.

However, they now have the option of filing the claims online in order to expedite processing and payment.

A new round of federal funding will aid development of 54 separate high-speed rail lines in 23 states, says the Department of Transportation.

Those projects will share $2.4 billion in newly approved federal funding announced last week by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

The new funding is on top of $8 billion provided last fall by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – federal funds earmarked for improved track and new passenger stations and equipment, as well as development of high-speed rail projects.

Much of the $2.4 billion in new funding goes to California ($901 million for a proposed high-speed rail line linking San Diego with Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento); and Florida ($715 million for a proposed high-speed rail line linking Tampa with Orlando and, eventually, Miami).

Some $230 million was awarded to Iowa for new passenger service between Iowa City and Chicago that will be jointly by Iowa Interstate Railroad and Amtrak; plus some $160 million awarded to Michigan for a high speed line linking Chicago and Detroit.

By UTU International President Mike Futhey

When UTU members vote for labor-friendly candidates, we are voting for our union’s access to the highest levels of government — and improved opportunity for better wages, benefits and working conditions.

Labor-friendly candidates understand the concerns of working families, and they deserve our vote on Election Day, Nov. 2.

When we helped to elect President Obama in 2008, we helped elect a president who nominated the first rail-union officer in history to head the Federal Railroad Administration — former UTU Illinois State Legislative Director Joe Szabo, who knows firsthand the safety concerns of UTU members.

President Obama’s choice to head the Surface Transportation Board (STB) was former UTU Associate General Counsel Dan Elliott. Among the responsibilities of the STB is to impose labor protection following rail mergers.

Because of President Obama’s election, we have, at the National Mediation Board, a labor-friendly majority that made it easier for rail and airline workers to gain union representation. The NMB also made dramatic reductions in outstanding grievances, and streamlined the process for bringing grievances and obtaining more timely awards.

At the Federal Aviation Administration, President Obama selected former Air Line Pilots’ Association President Randy Babbitt as administrator.

As for the Congress, a labor-friendly majority passed the most sweeping changes in rail workplace safety in generations. Among provisions of the Rail Safety Improvement Act passed by labor-friendly lawmakers was to provide for conductor certification, tighten penalties for carrier intimidation and harassment, and provide whistleblower protection.

Labor-friendly lawmakers we help to elect support changes making it easier for bus industry workers to organize, and labor-friendly lawmakers are pledged to protect Railroad Retirement, Social Security, Medicare and FELA.

Health care reform passed by a labor-friendly Congress allows children under age 26 to remain on their parents’ health care insurance plan without regard to student, marital, residence or financial dependent status. Health care reform also eliminated the ability of insurance companies to deny coverage for preexisting conditions and prevents insurers from imposing lifetime limits on benefit payments

Labor-friendly lawmakers support improvements in workplace safety affecting bus and transit members, support providing Amtrak with sufficient dollars to keep operating, and are pledged to fund the development of high-speed rail projects.

On Election Day, Nov. 2, the most important consideration for working families is job security, better wages, better benefits and improved working conditions.

By voting our paychecks and retaining a labor-friendly Congress, we help elect lawmakers who understand the needs of working families — and who open their doors and ears to labor leaders.

We endorse labor friendly candidates without regard to political party.

UTU endorsements of labor friendly candidates are based on commitments from those candidates to listen carefully to labor and put working families first.

In these difficult economic times, I urge you to join with me and cast a ballot on Nov. 2 for candidates who will put working families first.

To view the list of labor-friendly candidates, click on the following link:

https://static.smart-union.org/worksite/PDFs/2010_cong_endorsements.pdf

Faster than a bird and a plane is the vision of Amtrak President Joseph Boardman for future Amtrak high-speed service throughout the Northeast megalopolis, north from Washington, D.C., to Boston — a transportation corridor home to almost 50 million residents that represents more than 17 percent of the population on just 2 percent of the nations land area.

Boardman’s $117 billion vision, to be implemented over the next 30 years, is for Amtrak to operate trains up to 220-mph over a high-speed passenger-rail right-of-way linking Washington D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Boston.

Using a combination of public and private investment, Boardman would like construction to begin in 2015 and be fully operational by 2040.

Faster than a bird or a plane? Birds dont carry people. And air travel, with its attendant check-in, boarding and runway delays, cannot match the center-city to center-city speed of high-speed rail.

Boardman envisions Amtrak whisking rail passengers between Philadelphia and New York in 38 minutes; New York and Boston in 84 minutes; and New York and Washington in 96 minutes. Average speed between New York and Boston would be 148-mph, and 137-mph between New York and Washington.

“This is the same bold vision that linked our east and west coasts by rail during the mid-19th century, and gave America the Interstate highway system during the mid-20th century,” said UTU International President Mike Futhey.

“The implementation of high-speed rail corridors throughout America already has the full support of President Obama, Vice President Biden and all in rail labor. It is a project our growing nation, beset with transportation congestion, cannot afford to delay,” Futhey said.

The project would entail some 420-miles of mostly dedicated high-speed rail right-of-way — more than 40 percent being new right-of-way.

 The new high-speed rail service, said Boardman, would require a $4.7 billion annual investment over 25 years and generate an annual operating surplus of $900 million for Amtrak. The project would create some 44,000 construction jobs annually through 2040.

The Federal Transit Administration has placed a hold on $900 million in federal grants destined to Houston’s light-rail transit system – Houston Metro — for alleged violation of “Buy America” procurement regulations, reports the Bureau of National Affairs in its BNA Transportation Watch.

BNA quoted the transit systems’ officials as saying they would rebid procurement contracts that previously had been signed with a rail car manufacturer headquartered in Spain.