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SACRAMENTO – The California High-Speed Rail Authority won approval Thursday from a federal railroad oversight board to start construction this summer on the first leg of what would be the nation’s first bullet train.

In a 67-page decision issued June 13, the Surface Transportation Board ruled 2-1 that the state could begin work on the first 65 miles of the project from Merced to Fresno, as long as it maintains the current route and follows through on promises to mitigate damage to the environment caused by construction.

Read the full story at The Monterey County Herald.

(The Associated Press article above reports that the STD ruled 2-1 that the state could begin the project. While Vice Chairperson Ann D. Begeman dissented, in part, with the decision, she did not vote against it. The STB’s decision reads, in part:

It is ordered:

1. Under 49 U.S.C. § 10502, the Board exempts the construction of the above-described 65-mile Merced-to-Fresno passenger line from the prior approval requirements of 49 U.S.C. § 10901, subject to the following conditions:

(a) The California High Speed Rail Authority may construct the Preferred Build Alternative, identified as the environmentally preferable alternative by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), which consists of the Hybrid Alternative and the Downtown Merced and Downtown Fresno Mariposa Avenue station alternatives, subject to compliance with all the mitigation measures specified in the Mitigation Monitoring and Enforcement Plan imposed by FRA and provided as Appendix C to FRA’s Record of Decision, dated September 18, 2012.

(b) The California High-Speed Rail Authority shall comply with the Memorandum of Agreement developed through the Section 106 process of the National Historic Preservation Act.

2. The Authority’s reply to public comments is accepted for consideration.

3. CC-HSR’s supplemental comment and the late-filed comments of individuals are accepted for consideration.

4. Notice will be published in the Federal Register on June 19, 2013.

5. Petitions to reopen must be filed by July 3, 2013.

6. This decision shall be effective on June 28, 2013.

By the Board, Chairman Elliott, Vice Chairman Begeman, and Commissioner Mulvey.

Vice Chairman Begeman concurred in part and dissented in part with a separate expression. Commissioner Mulvey concurred with a separate expression.)

To view a copy of the STB’s decision, click here.

 

anthony_foxx
Foxx

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Charlotte mayor Anthony Foxx has cleared a major hurdle in his bid for Secretary of Transportation. His nomination cleared a Senate committee on June 10. 

According to committee chairman John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV, the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation approved the nominations of Mayor Anthony Foxx, to be Secretary of Transportation, and Ms. Penny Pritzker, to be Secretary of Commerce.

Read the full story at television station WBTV.

 

bus2A school bus driver for Haralson County Schools in Alabama was terminated after he posted a comment on Facebook about a student not receiving a free lunch. The case serves as the latest example of the confusing and risky nature of social media posts by school employees and calls to light the importance of school district policy.

The district, located about 50 miles west of Atlanta near the Alabama border, said Johnny Cook not only violated employee policy in posting his comment about the unnamed student, but also got his facts wrong, which Cook, pictured above, denies.

Read the full story at School Transportation News.

The SMART Transportation Division’s Minnesota State Legislative Board is sponsoring an open house June 17 for all active and retired members from all carrier properties.

This free educational experience will be held from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Roseville Radisson Hotel at 2540 N. Cleveland Ave. in Roseville, Minn., State Legislative Director Phillip Qualy reports.

UTUIA Field Supervisor Ron Tokach will be available to review your insurance needs and update any policies you may currently hold and UTU designated legal counsel will be present to provide legal services updates.

Qualy will be available to discuss a variety of issues and will be ready to assist anyone wishing to contribute to the UTU PAC fund. All members signing new PAC pledges will be eligible for a July 4 UTU PAC gift raffle.

Retired members who are not already UTU Alumni Association members can enroll in the program and also enjoy video archives of UTU labor actions over the past 30 years.

Free food and beverages will be available throughout the day. All members who are not working on that day are encouraged to attend.

Print this flyer for display at your current crew location.

Transport Canada recommends ‘voluntary’ recorders in trains

Transport Canada is leaving it up to rail companies to decide whether to install video and audio recorders in locomotives, despite a decade of recommendations by accident investigators to install the devices.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada said in 2003 that recorders, which serve a similar function as black boxes in airplanes, should be installed to better determine what happened in locomotives in the event of accidents. The issue came to the forefront again following the VIA Rail derailment in Burlington, Ont., in February, 2012.

Read the complete story at The Globe and Mail.

 

MINOT, N.D. — To bolster its ability to haul freight, including crude oil, Fort Worth-based BNSF Railway Co. plans to spend $4.1 billion on capital improvements in 2013, a single-year record for an American railroad, the company says.

Such grand business plans, though, didn’t mean anything to a young moose wandering through the huge Gavin Yard here recently. Train activity halted for a time. Moose sightings are not unusual in this town about 50 miles from Canada. The animals follow the river bottoms looking for food.

Read the full story at The Dallas Morning News.

 

carper_web
Carper

MACOMB, Ill. — President Barack Obama has re-nominated former Macomb mayor Tom Carper to the Amtrak Board of Directors.

Carper got confirmation June 5 from staff members in the White House.

Read the full story at the Quincy Herald-Whig.

Amtrak LogoWASHINGTON – The reduced level of federal investment in Northeast Corridor (NEC) infrastructure has resulted in a cumulative degradation of its components, nearing the loss of asset functionality and decreased reliability of the system that threatens the successful continuity of passenger rail operations, Amtrak President and CEO Joe Boardman told a Congressional committee June 7.

“There is insufficient NEC infrastructure investment to meet both the on-going normalized replacement and the backlog capital requirements. And that means we are eating our assets alive,” he explained.

Boardman said this de-capitalization of NEC assets leads to rapidly increasing degradation of ride quality, reliability, and the ability to support major improvement projects.

He urged the federal government to act now and use the opportunity of rail reauthorization legislation to take the lead in funding a major program to build out the NEC infrastructure needed for the coming century. Amtrak shares the NEC with eight commuter railroads and its infrastructure supports the movement of 260 million intercity and commuter rail passengers each year. Several of the most important segments, such as the New York tunnels, are at capacity with ridership demand at record levels and growing.

Boardman noted Amtrak needs $782 million every year for the next 15 years just for the costs of NEC normalized replacement ($386 million) and the backlog of infrastructure work ($396 million). That level of funding will allow Amtrak to run a safe railroad at maximum allowed track speed, maintain an excellent on-time performance and meet the basic needs of those who want to develop real estate along the NEC and fill their development with the people who they expect to come by train. However, it will not address needed capacity improvements, trip-time reductions or other new initiatives.

He reminded committee members that after Amtrak was given control of the NEC in 1976 during the Conrail process, it was followed by several significant, federally-funded repair and improvement programs which transformed the dilapidated mid-century rail operation it inherited into the successful high-rail speed rail route it is today.

A copy of Boardman’s full written testimony can be found here.

oklahoma_tornadoLocal 1188 at Oklahoma City, Okla., has established a relief fund to assist their brothers and sisters who have been affected by May’s tornado in Moore, Okla.
“Several members of Local 1188 and Local 1042 in Oklahoma City have had their homes damaged or completely destroyed. There were also other brothers and sisters of other unions that had damage. We would like to assist our railroad family as much as possible and get their lives back together. All proceeds will go directly to members,” said Secretary & Treasurer Steve Freeman.
Donations may be made to “UTU Local 1188 Tornado Relief” at Arvest Banks or sent to Arvest Bank, 9350 S. Western Ave., Oklahoma City, OK 73139.
An typographical error in June issue of the SMART Transportation Division News omits a portion of the bank’s address above. We apologize for the omission.

Stem
Stem

As our Washington staff interacts with decision makers here in the nation’s capital, our focus is to improve our members’ job security and safety and to create more job opportunities in our industries.

We are presently involved in a number of efforts to fulfill those goals.

Fatigue is a major safety issue for our members in the rail, bus and airline industries. In 2012, the FRA published a final rule on passenger rail hours-of-service that requires the use of scientific models to measure the likelihood of fatigue. This is a first for our industry. We are working with other rail unions, the rail industry and FRA to finalize language on federally-mandated “risk reduction plans” that we hope will move us further along in addressing fatigue in the rail industry.

We have also been working with other transit unions to find legislative and regulatory ways to address fatigue for our over-the-road bus operators and operators with early starts.

We have new rules from the Federal Aviation Administration on pilot hours-of-service requirements and we are working with other pilots’ unions to find improved applications of the new rules.

Other safety issues we are addressing are distractions caused by the use of electronic devices and the American culture that leads us to expect instant communication. This issue impacts all transportation employees, especially safety critical and CDL-qualified workers.

We are working with several other unions on coal-related issues, because hauling coal by train is such a big part of what our members do. The clean air and clean water laws are pushing the Environmental Protection Agency to issue regulations on gas emissions from coal-fired power plants that we think are too stringent. The low price of natural gas is our main concern, with many power plants converting to gas to take advantage of the lower prices. We have a big challenge here.

We are also working with groups to promote the growth of transit and public transportation options, and stable funding sources for transit operations, inter-city passenger and commuter rail.

There is an effort in the House of Representatives to raise truck weights from the current 80,000 lb. limit to 97,000 lbs. This would cause some traffic to shift from our nation’s railroads onto our already overburdened highways, causing more damage to our crumbling roads and bridges and increasing the stopping distances required for these trucks.

The U.S. DOT is conducting a comprehensive study to determine the impact increased truck weights would have on our infrastructure, but several members of Congress are pushing increased truck weights before the DOT study is complete.

I urge all our members and their families to get registered and to vote in every election. Our transportation industry is most sensitive to legislation and regulation. What government does at every level matters to transportation workers, so your participation in the election process is not just a civic responsibility, it is an important way for you to protect your livelihood and personal safety.

Your UTU PAC contributions are also desperately needed to help us deliver your message to the decision makers who can make a difference. UTU PAC is a tool that opens the door and provides access to lawmakers. So, give to UTU PAC like your job depends on it…because it does.