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As the recession takes its toll, an increased rail safety threat is emerging – the theft of rail spikes and tie plates from active railroad lines.

In Woodbine, N.J., last week, police arrested four men suspected of stealing spikes and tie plates from five miles of New Jersey Transit track — used by Cape May Seashore Lines for passenger and freight operations — and selling the metal for scrap, reports the Cape May Herald newspaper.

It’s just something else rail employees must be on the lookout for – an additional aspect of situational awareness that ensures train and engine crews go home to their families in one piece.

Train and engine employment continues to climb back toward pre-recession levels, with Class I railroads continuing to call back furloughed train crews.

The Surface Transportation Board posted data for September, showing train and engine employment on Class I railroads grew almost 9 percent in September, versus September 2009; and was almost 2 percent higher than in August 2010.

Train and engine service employment stood at 61,444 in September, while total Class I railroad employment was at 154,094.

UTU Michigan State Legislative Director Jerry Gibson knows the value of the UTU PAC in electing labor friendly lawmakers. He knows how to share those facts, also.

UTU Local 1075 Secretary-Treasurer John Purcell says he and other members of his Trenton, Mich., local had “no clue of what the UTU PAC was. No one had ever explained how it worked” until Gibson showed up at a union local meeting.

Purcell credits Gibson with educating the local’s members “on how PAC funds are used and the benefits the PAC provides. I started contributing myself immediately and began to encourage others to do the same,” Purcell said in a recent e-mail he sent Gibson.

“The value of the UTU PAC was further driven home after my attendance at the regional meetings where I learned what was being done in Washington D.C., and the impact of our PAC funds there,” Purcell said.

More recently, Purcell said the UTU’s get-out-the vote drive for the Nov. 2 elections was a success. Post cards sent members through a project of the National Legislative Office “reached the members’ homes and several contacted me and asked questions,” Purcell said.

“I provided information which included that the UTU PAC is not a partisan program and that it supports candidates that support us regardless of party affiliation,” Purcell said. “I used the information provided, which listed successful legislation that has improved safety and benefits.

“All of this resulted in 12 members either increasing their UTU PAC donation or becoming new donors all together,” Purcell said.

Purcell said he now writes a check to the UTU PAC in the amount of $265 per month, and 44 percent of Local 1075’s members now donate. He said his goal is to gain PAC contributions from 75 percent of Local 1075’s members.

Union Pacific is at it again — and the UTU and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen intend to stop it, again.

The “it” is a UP request to the Federal Railroad Administration that UP be allowed to bring trains from Mexico into the United States without proper mechanical safety inspections at the border crossing.

In a petition to the FRA, the UTU and the BLET asked the agency to deny UP’s latest waiver request that trains from Mexico be allowed enter the U.S. through El Paso, Texas, without first undergoing required mechanical safety inspections.

“Safety is the paramount reason that the [UP request] should be denied,” the UTU and the BLET told the FRA. “It is common” for cars from Mexico to enter the U.S. “with handbrakes applied, retaining valves set, angle cocks closed and bad order cars located within the train.

“The bad order cars from Mexico are sent into the U.S. so that UP can repair them. Not to be overlooked is the fact that these trains also frequently are transporting hazardous materials cars,” the UTU and the BLET told the FRA.

“There exists an adequate repair facility at UP’s River Yard located near the International Bridge which can accommodate these trains,” the FRA was told.

Furthermore, the UTU and the BLET told the FRA, “The granting of this kind of petition is not what Congress intended by its enactment of the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008.

“Congress made it clear that defective cars from Mexico should not enter the U.S. There is every indication that these trains did not receive proper mechanical and brake inspections in Mexico, and there has been no certification by the FRA that the Mexican trains have complied with the applicable U.S. standards.

“Historically, the FRA has denied requests for waiver of air brake and mechanical safety inspections on trains entering the U.S. if the request involves movement of the trains past a point where the inspections can be performed,” the UTU and the BLET told the FRA.

“We believe the FRA should stand fast with this policy and, consistent with earlier decisions of this type, deny the [UP waiver] request.”

Norfolk Southern has launched a new advertising program that will debut on CNN and Fox television. It follows the announcement by Union Pacific last week of a new UP advertising effort to reach potential rail customers and rail investors.

The NS ad, according to the railroad, sends the message that rail supports the American economy and brings a world of opportunity and benefits to its customers and communities.

The ad reflects the fact that “NS is the backbone of an integrated logistics system that makes modern life possible,” said NS CEO Wick Moorman. “We have extraordinary abilities to offer in terms of service, safety, economy, sustainability, and the ways in which we connect the businesses and people who depend on us.”

WASHINGTON – U.S. Surface Transportation Board member Charles “Chip” Nottingham said he will not seek reappointment when his term expires Dec. 31.

Under federal law, STB members may continue serving for up to 12 months after expiration of their term, or until a successor is nominated by the White House and confirmed by the Senate.

President Obama has not announced a nominee to succeed Nottingham, the lone Republican on the three-person STB.

The agency’s rail regulatory functions include approving mergers, line sales, line leases, line abandonments and imposition of labor protective conditions.

The other two members of the STB are Chairman Dan Elliott and Vice Chairman Frank Mulvey, both Democrats. Elliott was appointed chairman to succeed Nottingham in that post following Obama’s becoming president.

UPPER DARBY, Pa. — It’s something every bus driver fears – a gun pulled in anger aboard a bus.

It happened – again – in Upper Darby, Pa., last week on a Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority bus, according to the Associated Press.

A female passenger brandished a handgun and threatened a fellow passenger during an argument. The altercation was stopped by a cool-headed third passenger, reported the Associated Press.

The Associated Press said there were 30 people on board the bus at the time. Police arrested the woman who brandished the handgun.

The UTU National Legislative Office and many state legislative directors are working with lawmakers to seek legislation requiring driver training in how to deal with unruly and abusive riders.

The UTU also is working to require protective shields for drivers and other crime deterring devices aboard buses, such as cameras.

The Railroad Retirement Board has confirmed for rail workers what the Social Security Administration already has told Social Security recipients: There will be no increase in benefits in 2011.

The reason is there was no increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) from the third quarter of 2009 to the corresponding period of the current year.

Additionally, and because the CPI did not rise, Railroad Retirement and Social Security beneficiaries will not see an increase in 2011 in the earnings limitation that triggers benefits cuts if they continue working while receiving benefits.

For those under full retirement age throughout 2011, the exempt earnings amount remains at $14,160. For beneficiaries attaining full retirement age in 2011, the exempt earnings amount, for the months before the month full retirement age is attained, remains at $37,680 in 2011.

For employee and spouse annuitants, full retirement age ranges from age 65 for those born before 1938 to age 67 for those born in 1960 or later. For survivor annuitants, full retirement age ranges from age 65 for those born before 1940 to age 67 for those born in 1962 or later.

Special work restrictions continue to be applicable to disability annuitants. In 2011, the monthly disability earnings limit will also stay at the previous year’s amount of $780.

Regardless of age and/or earnings, no Railroad Retirement annuity is payable for any month in which an annuitant (retired employee, spouse or survivor) works for a railroad employer or railroad union.

The Department of Health and Human Services has not yet announced if there will be Medicare premium changes for 2011. Information about Medicare changes for 2011, when available, may be found at www.medicare.gov.

SANFORD, Fla. – A new Amtrak station – seating 600 and four times the size of its predecessor – has opened near Orlando for the more than 244,000 annual Amtrak Auto Train passengers, reports an Amtrak press release.

The $10.5 million to enlarge and improve the station – severely damaged by a 2004 hurricane — was funded with $10.5 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). Since the hurricane, part of the waiting room was sheltered in a tent.

Amtrak’s Auto Train, operating between Lorton, Va., (just outside Washington, D.C.) and Sanford, is said by Amtrak to be “the longest passenger train in the world, with two locomotives and 40-plus passenger rail cars and vehicle carriers operating daily.”

The 855-mile Auto Train route is the only Amtrak service to simultaneously transport passengers and their motor vehicles, including cars, SUVs, vans, trucks and motorcycles. Each year, says Amtrak, the Auto Train draws more than 100,000 vehicles off heavily congested I-95.

Said the Amtrak press release: “A look at the license plates on vehicles being driven to and from the Auto Train shows it draws users from the Eastern Seaboard of the United States and several Canadian provinces, all choosing to ride overnight in sleeping compartments or reclining coach seats for the scheduled 17 ½ hour trip rather than drive the distance.”

BNSF, Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific have spent or are spending more than $600 million in Kansas, Pennsylvania and Illinois to increase their intermodal business.

BNSF is constructing a $200 million intermodal terminal southwest of Kansas City in Edgerton, Kan., reports journalstar.com. The state is contributing $35 million toward the project, which is to be repaid by a utilities sales tax.

Norfolk Southern will hold a groundbreaking Oct. 19 on a 220-acre, $94 million intermodal terminal near Greencastle, Pa., scheduled to be completed in 2012, reports progressiverailroading.com, which says the new terminal is part of the NS Crescent Corridor – a 2,500-mile intermodal double-stack route linking New Jersey and Louisiana.

Union Pacific, meanwhile, has opened a $370 million intermodal terminal at Joliet, Ill., reports journalstar.com. UP said the new terminal has the capacity to handle some 500,000 highway-to-rail containers and trailers, and is second in size to UP’s Long Beach, Calif., intermodal terminal that has a capacity of some 700,000 container and trailer loadings annually.

Railwayage.com reports that among the Joliet terminal’s features are four 8,000-foot tracks with capacity to handle the loading or unloading of 104 double-stack cars, six 8,000-foot tracks to sort railcars by destination, and six storage tracks.