Category: News

Conductor ‘makes every day a good day’

June 18, 2013 Gordon Bowe doesn’t become personal friends with all of his passengers. But after more than three decades of walking the aisles as a conductor on Metra trains to and from Chicago, Bowe, known by many as “Gordo,” has come to know those who ride the trains from Elburn through L [...]

Tags conductor, Gordon Bowe, Metra

SMART conductor helps rescue boy from cliff

June 14, 2013 SMART Transportation Division member and conductor Ben Goar (Local 911), along with engineer Frederick Jarrell, was presented with an award for helping to save seven-year-old William Simondet’s life. The Canadian Pacific conductor and the engineer saw the boy on a steep [...]

VRE members agree to three-year deal

June 14, 2013 Members of the SMART Transportation Division employed by Keolis Rail Services ratified a new three-year agreement June 7 to continue service on the Virginia Railway Express trains operating between Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C. Of the ballots returned, 78 percent wer [...]

Tags Keolis, Sampson, Virginia Railway Express, VRE

L.A. Metro bus operator killed in crash

June 14, 2013 A Los Angeles Metro bus operator and SMART TD member was killed early Wednesday, June 12, in a head-on crash with a speeding flatbed tow truck. Olivia Gamboa, 47, a member of SMART TD Local 1563 at El Monte, Calif., was transported to a hospital in critical condition and late [...]

Tags bus operator killed, Los Angeles Metro, Olivia Gamboa

Amtrak, beware?

June 14, 2013 What’s up with California Rep. Jeff Denham? Enquiring Amtrak enthusiasts would like to know. According to a report by Politico transportation writer Adam Snider, the Republican representative from California’s 10th Congressional District “has been busy with rail lately, hitti [...]

Tags Amtrak, House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure

More money needed to ease Chicago train congestion

June 14, 2013 At a roundtable discussion June 10, local representatives for transportation, labor and commerce urged members of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials to pledge more funding to a plan aimed at overhauling the region’s rail system, [...]

Tags Bob Guy, Chicago, congestion

No lights, faded signs at train crash site

June 14, 2013 A preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board June 12 found that the Rosedale intersection where a CSX train derailed and exploded last month had no active warning lights or gates. In addition, two yellow stop signs “had faded significantly, and both [...]

Tags explosion, Md., rail crossing, Rosedale, train crash

STB OKs Calif. high-speed project

June 14, 2013 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 Tra [...]

Tags California High-Speed Rail Authority

Foxx clears first hurdle, nomination goes to Senate

June 12, 2013 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, Sc [...]

Tags DOT, Foxx

School bus driver fired for Facebook post

June 12, 2013 A 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 ca [...]

Tags Facebook, school bus driver