Category: News
Alaska Railroad stalled by earthquake damage
A magnitude-7.0 earthquake rippled through Matanuska-Susitna Borough and Anchorage, Alaska, causing collapses and damage to Alaska’s infrastructure on Friday, Nov. 30. More than 200 aftershocks, some up to 5.7 magnitude, continued for 12 hours after the initial quake. D [...]
FTA allocates $281 million in funding for five transit projects
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announced a total of $281 million in additional Fiscal Year 2018 federal funding allocations to five transit projects in Arizona, California, Minnesota and Texas. Funding will be provide [...]
Kansas company admits fault in causing Amtrak derailment; trial canceled
A feed company whose truck rolled down a hill and crashed into railroad tracks in Cimarron, Kan., in March 2016 has admitted fault and avoided a trial on the matter. Amtrak’s Southwest Chief derailed on those same tracks about 15 hours later, and 28 people aboard the Lo [...]
FRA issues Final Rule to promote safe and efficient high-speed passenger rail operations
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) issued a final rule establishing modern, performance-based safety standards for railroad passenger equipment. The rule reinforces FRA’s commitment to safety while representing one [...]
Preliminary report issued by NTSB on accident that killed two Local 446 members
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released a preliminary report on the Oct. 4 collision of two Union Pacific (UP) trains in Granite Canyon, Wyo., that killed SMART Transportation Division Local 446 members Jason Vincent Martinez, 40, and Benjamin “Benj [...]
RRB: Buyouts and Railroad Retirement Benefits
Railroad employees frequently ask the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) how the acceptance of a buyout from a railroad employer affects their future eligibility for benefits under the Railroad Retirement and Railroad Unemployment Insurance Acts. The following questions and answ [...]
Honoring our Veterans
World War I – known at the time as “The Great War” – officially ended when the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, in the Palace of Versailles outside the town of Versailles, France. However, fighting ceased seven months earlier when an armistice, or tempo [...]