CLEVELAND — The Transportation Division of the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation International Association (SMART) and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET/IBT) have jointly announced that legislation requiring at least two crew members on all fr [...]
Authorities say a bus driver in northern New Jersey was talking on his cellphone when he crashed, triggering a chain reaction accident that killed an 8-month-old girl. Authorities have issued summonses for reckless driving and using a cellphone while driving for 48-year-old I [...]
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has delayed by nearly a year a plan to boost safety standards for the type of rail car involved in a fiery explosion that killed at least 47 people in Canada this month. Officials began work on the rule more than a year before an oil trai [...]
The driver of a Spanish train that derailed and killed 79 people was talking on the phone when the train flew off a tight curve, court documents show. In the moments before the derailment, Garzon received a call on his work phone from Spain’s national train company Renf [...]
The oil industry and U.S railroads are resisting the Obama administration’s attempt to boost safety standards for the type of rail car involved in a fiery, fatal explosion in Canada, citing costs and technical challenges. Industry groups say it is impractical to retrofi [...]
The SMART Transportation Division’s Anaheim, Calif., regional meeting began July 29 with a town hall forum at which SMART members were able to pose questions directly to the union’s leadership. More than 500 members, guests and presenters are attending the regional meet [...]
In an opinion released July 25, the U.S. District Court in Shreveport, La., ruled that the decision by Kansas City Southern Railway to install two inward-facing cameras in the cabs of its locomotives presents a “minor” dispute under the Railway Labor Act, paving the way for t [...]
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — President Barack Obama in a speech in Jacksonville, Fla., Thursday urged Congress to pass a bill to fund infrastructure projects and investments. Obama delivered the speech, his third consecutive talk on the economy, at the Port Terminal Building at [...]
GALVA, Kansas — The crew of a passing freight train is getting the credit for spotting an overnight fire that damaged a middle school in central Kansas. Authorities believe lightning started the fire at Canton-Galva Middle School. Damage was confined to the gymnasium, where f [...]
Crashes are traumatic for both victims and the railroad employees who witness the tragedies unfold. An average freight train has 100 cars and at least two engines, a total package weighing as much as 6,000 tons. Traveling at 55 mph, such a train takes at least a mile to come [...]