Category: News

Familiar name to lead American Public Transp. Assn.

August 3, 2011 WASHINGTON – A former official with three bus operators employing UTU members has been elected president and CEO of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), which represents bus and transit operators before Congress and regulatory agencies. The appointment is ef [...]

Tags American Public Transportation Association, APTA, First Student, Melaniphy, Transit Management

August sun carries skin cancer risk

August 3, 2011 The August sun can be dangerous, and protecting your skin should be a high priority. Although this is a year-round issue, overexposure to sun and its dangers occurs most during the summer. When skin is exposed to ultra-violet (UV) rays, it responds by producing melanin, a pig [...]

Tags skin cancer

Learning to be better leaders

August 2, 2011 Morr By BONNIE MORR Alternate Vice President, Bus Department Bus Department workshops at the San Antonio and New York regional meetings were among the most informative in many years, and reflect the promise of President Futhey to beef-up and place greater emphasis on those wo [...]

Tags Bonnie Morr, regional meetings

National rail contract ballots in mail

August 1, 2011 Voting packages for the tentative national rail contract were mailed Friday, Aug. 12, to UTU members eligible to vote. The balloting period will extend for 21 days to 4 p.m., Eastern time, Friday, Sept. 2. Voting will be by craft under the craft-autonomy provisions of the UTU [...]

Tags BallotPoint, National Rail Contract

Maglev’s future bleak after Pa. firm’s bankruptcy

July 29, 2011 The likelihood of 300-mph magnetic levitation trains operating in the United States anytime soon took another body blow in July when a private-sector firm planning a maglev route in Pennsylvania filed for bankruptcy. Maglev uses powerful electro-magnets to levitate, propel, g [...]

Tags maglev, magnetic levitation

1 grey sedan, 2 unknown occupants & a TSA mystery

July 28, 2011 Witnesses say it’s a grey sedan. A grey four-door sedan — occupied by two men. A grey four-door sedan occupied by two men that shows up at railroad facilities. The men claim to work for the Federal Railroad Administration. That say they are there to inspect a bridge, or [...]

Tags Federal Railroad Administration, FRA, terror, terrorist, Transportation Security Administration, TSA

Q&As on tentative national rail contract

July 27, 2011 Following negotiation of the tentative national rail contract, general chairpersons submitted questions about the contract that were relayed by the International to the National Carriers’ Conference Committee (NCCC), which represents carriers at the bargaining table. Th [...]

Wrap up: Major rails’ 2d quarter 2011 profits

July 27, 2011 Canadian National: Canadian National Railway July 25 reported an 8 percent increase in profit for the second quarter 2011 versus the second quarter 2010, citing a 10 percent increase in intermodal loadings (trailers and containers on flat cars) and a 14 percent increase in in [...]

Tags BNSF, Canadian National, Canadian Pacific, CSX, Kansas City Southern, Norfolk Southern, operating ratio, profits, Union Pacific

Yard accident claims UTU member

July 26, 2011 CHICAGO — A Belt Railway of Chicago switchman and UTU member with three years’ service was crushed to death between two rail cars in a hump yard here just after midnight July 25. Andres Tapia, 34, a member of UTU Local 1597 (Chicago), and working a two-person remote con [...]

Tags Andres Tapia, Belt Railway of Chicago, killed, remote control

Rising bus death toll accentuates safety reform need

July 25, 2011 As the UTU continues to lobby safety regulators and Congress on the need for bus-operator fatigue abatement, improved driver training and tougher bus-safety inspections, tragic events are placing even more emphasis on this topic. Since January, according to Advocates for High [...]

Tags bus safety