News - Page 401 of 645

Low oil prices unlikely to hurt railroads much

January 5, 2015 OMAHA, Neb. – The stunning collapse in oil prices won’t derail the railroads’ profit engine, even if it does slow the tremendous growth in crude shipments seen in recent years. Carloads of crude oil spiked well over 4,000 percent between 2008 and last year — from [...]

Tags crude oil

NTSB safety alert highlights improving visibility

January 3, 2015 WASHINGTON– The National Transportation Safety Board issued a Safety Alert that focuses on the visibility of railroad signals. On railroads, light-emitting diode (LED) railroad signals may mask nearby incandescent signals, preventing incandescent signals from being visible to [...]

Tags National Transportation Safety Board, NTSB

Our life at work: Jerry Anderton

January 3, 2015 Thirty years with men operating trains and yard engines. For the past 30 years I have been closely involved with men who operate trains and yard engines in Tennessee and neighboring states. The main portion of my service to the Norfolk-Southern was in Debutts Yard in Chattano [...]

Union criticizes cuts in railroad maintenance crews

January 2, 2015 BISMARCK, N.D. – The union representing maintenance workers says cuts by Canadian Pacific Railway could exacerbate delays in rail shipping in the region. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters says CP has eliminated or moved some workers who build and maintain track [...]

Tags Canadian Pacific Railway, Maintenance Workers

NLRB Takes Steps to Level Playing Field for Workers

January 2, 2015 In the biggest policy boost to Union organizing in decades, the National Labor Relations Board issued a long-awaited final rule speeding up the union election process. This rule comes after years of legal challenges to the Obama Administrations attempts at leveling the play8 [...]

FMCSA to maintain random drug testing rates in 2015

January 2, 2015 The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) reported that the annual minimum random controlled substances testing rates for employees in safety sensitive positions, including tractor-trailer and bus drivers, will remain at 50 percent through 2015. The agency’s de [...]

Tags bus, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, FMCSA

Attention local treasurers, billings to be mailed Jan. 5

January 2, 2015 Due to the holidays, December billings will not be mailed until Jan. 5.

FRA sets hearing for SEPTA waiver request

December 30, 2014 The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has set a Feb. 10 public hearing on a dispute between the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) and its rail employees regarding a safety rule designed to limit fatigue on the job. SEPTA wants the FRA to renew the [...]

Tags FRA, SEPTA

Editorial: Do not reduce train crews to one

December 29, 2014 With profit seemingly driving all business decisions, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the country’s major railroad companies are continuing their quest to reduce freight trains crews … to one person. Not surprising, but scary. The railroad bosses are united [...]

Tags one-person crew, safety, two-person crews

LIRR leads Metro-North as nation's busiest

December 27, 2014 The Long Island Rail Road is on pace to close out the year, once again, as the busiest commuter rail system in the United States — this time by a much wider margin over Metro-North than last year. Transportation experts attributed the LIRR’s widening lead over its [...]

Tags LIRR, Long Island Rail Road