SSA, RRB benefits to rise by only 1.5 percent

WASHINGTON – Social Security benefits for nearly 58 million people will increase by 1.5 percent next year, the government announced Wednesday. The increase is among the smallest since automatic adjustments were adopted in 1975. It is small because consumer prices haven’ [...]

Boardman to Senate: Invest in NEC

The Northeast Corridor is a national transportation asset and Congress should stop taking it for granted, Amtrak President and Chief Executive Officer Joe Boardman told a Senate committee yesterday. The corridor is aging, failure prone and lacks redundant systems to keep it o [...]

Americans Love Amtrak

The following op-ed appeared in the Des Moines Register and was co-authored by SMART Transportation President John Previsich and Edward Wytkind, President of the Transportation Trades Department. “While politicians can’t agree on much, Iowans and the majority of America [...]

Sheet Metal Workers Train For the Challenge

A profile of the Sheet Metal Workers’ Local 206 Joint Apprenticeship and Training Center in San Diego.  San Diego Planning Commissioner Anthony Wagner attests to the value of a quality training program like that available through Local 206.  “The sheet metal workers hav [...]

Hersman, Hart retain NTSB seats

On Monday, Deborah Hersman was sworn in to serve a third two-year term as chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). Chair since 2009, Hersman was nominated for a third term by President Barack Obama on Aug. 1 and the nomination was confirmed by the Senate [...]

CN hiding derailment, falsifying stats, employees say

A CBC News investigation has unearthed allegations that suggest CN Rail has routinely under-reported minor derailments and misrepresented its yard efficiency measurements across Canada and the U.S. The CBC probe was prompted by a whistleblower lawsuit launched in the U.S. by [...]

Pueblo steaming toward Amtrak stop

Support for saving Amtrak’s Southwest Chief passenger train and making Pueblo a route stop is picking up steam. The Pueblo Area Council of Governments passed a resolution Thursday pushing the importance and need for Pueblo to be added on to the Southeastern Colorado route, an [...]

SMART TD travel agency has two trips on horizon

Landfall Travel, the official travel agency of the UTU Alumni Association, is offering two trips to Transportation Division members and retirees in the coming year. The first offering is an Alaskan cruise aboard the Golden Princess. This eight-day cruise leaves from Seattle, [...]