WASHINGTON — A national ban on cell-phone use by bus drivers has been proposed by the U.S. DOT. It is expected to be put in place before March. Bus drivers already are banned by federal regulation from texting while working. “Every time a commercial truck or bus d [...]
When Union Pacific took possession of six freight cars interchanged from a Mexican railroad at Eagle Pass, Texas, the manifest showed titanium ore as the contents, and a Chicago warehouse as the destination. Customs agents were suspicious, and discovered, instead, almost 22,0 [...]
A UTU member will be collecting more than $95,000 in penalties assessed against BNSF by the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) for the railroad’s violation of the Federal Rail Safety Act. OSHA found BNSF guilty of intimidating and harassing an injure [...]
Now that Congress has approved, and sent to President Obama for signing, the compromise tax cut and jobless benefits legislation, the question UTU members have, is, “What does it mean for me?” For the jobless — and there are currently some five applicants fo [...]
Amtrak maintenance-of-way employees say they want a new wage package at least equivalent to what is paid on the highly profitable freight railroads, reports Angela Greiling Keane for Bloomberg. But unlike profitable freight railroads, Amtrak loses about $1 billion annually, s [...]
When you think you have heard it all, along comes this one. Union Pacific, according to the Associated Press, has filed a lawsuit against an Idaho food processor, alleging its processed dehydrated mashed potato flakes stuck to the wheels of some freight cars and caused a 2009 [...]
COMMERCE, Calif. — Hundreds of pedestrians and drivers are killed on railroad tracks and at highway-rail grade-crossings each year, but a triple fatality near Los Angeles Dec. 13 was especially horrific. The Los Angeles Times reports three young men — perhaps all [...]
WASHINGTON — Unsafe commercial bus operators are to be targeted by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration through a program to be called Compliance Safety Accountability. The agency said the program will include an analysis of safety-based violations — in [...]
Unlike prior years, where railroads cut loose employees during lean times, leaving them without benefits, Union Pacific during this recession has attempted to keep many on a reduced schedule, allowing them to retain health care benefits, reports the Topeka Capital-Journal. A [...]
NORTH PLATTE, Neb. — Union Pacific is four years into its five-year pilot Confidential Close Calls Reporting System (C3RS) and participants are giving it high marks for improving safety culture. C3RS encourages engineers, conductors, trainmen and yardmasters to report c [...]
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