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Inspectors find scores of defects on CSX rails in Va.

September 29, 2014 In the days after a train carrying highly flammable oil to Yorktown plunged off its tracks in downtown Lynchburg, dumping 15 cars into the James River and sparking a fire so intense that emergency crews had to simply let it burn itself out, federal track inspectors found more [...]

Tags CSX, Patrick Corp

Education, Strength, Unity

September 29, 2014 Thanks to all of the delegates, members, guests and staff that made the First SMART General Convention a resounding success. I have been involved in this union for 45 years. There has never been a more outspoken, honest, and hardworking General Executive Council than the one [...]

Crude oil train safety regulator steps down

September 26, 2014 The head of the federal agency tasked with improving the safety of crude oil transportation by rail is stepping down. Cynthia Quarterman, who has led the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration since 2009, will leave an agency that recently proposed sturdier co [...]

Tags crude oil, Cynthia Quarterman, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration

New Jobs Available In Texas

September 26, 2014 New job postings have been issues via the SMART Job Bank for sheet metal positions in Texas. Please visit the Sheet Metal Job Bank for more information.

Feds delay alcohol, drug regs for MOW workers

September 25, 2014 Federal regulators are putting the brakes on new alcohol and drug regulations for railroad maintenance workers. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) proposed new testing requirements for railroad track workers in July but said Wednesday (Sept. 24) it is extending the com [...]

Tags alcohol and drug testing, FRA, maintenance of way

Report: Hazardous chemicals not on trains' cargo lists

September 24, 2014 At least 18 times in the past three years BNSF Railway freight trains rolled west out of Minneapolis pulling cars filled with hazardous chemicals that were not on the train’s official cargo list, according to train crew complaints. That’s contrary to federal regul [...]

Tags BNSF Railway, hazardous materials, hazmat, Minnesota

Class I employment grows during August

September 22, 2014 The U.S. Class I workforce continued to grow last month. As of mid-August, the large railroads employed 167,988 people, up 0.5 percent from July’s level and 2.8 percent from August 2013’s mark, according to Surface Transportation Board employment data. On a month- [...]

Tags Class I workforce, employment

Newspaper reports on SMART TD's Risch

September 22, 2014 One Bismarck man has ridden the rails from shoveling rock and swinging a spike mallet in the railyard to top official of the country’s largest railway employee union. John Risch has been elected national legislative director of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Ai [...]

Tags John Risch

BNSF: Keystone pipeline won’t dent crude by rail

September 19, 2014 One of the top executives at the nation’s leading hauler of crude oil in trains said Friday that the proposed Keystone XL pipeline wouldn’t take away any of his company’s business. Matt Rose, the executive chairman of BNSF Railway, told Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo [...]

Tags BNSF Railway, crude oil, tank cars

Conductor who won suit over BNSF loses home

September 17, 2014 SNOHOMISH, Wash. – A Snohomish man says he’s out hundreds of thousands of dollars he’s owed and is struggling to support his family — all because he was trying to protect you from an oil train derailment. Moving into a new house is usually cause for celebration, b [...]

Tags BNSF Railway, Curtis Rookaird, OSHA