Oil train safety rule delayed by one year

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has delayed by nearly a year a plan to boost safety standards for the type of rail car involved in a fiery explosion that killed at least 47 people in Canada this month. Officials began work on the rule more than a year before an oil trai [...]

Driver of Spanish train was talking on phone

The driver of a Spanish train that derailed and killed 79 people was talking on the phone when the train flew off a tight curve, court documents show. In the moments before the derailment, Garzon received a call on his work phone from Spain’s national train company Renf [...]

Anaheim meeting opens with town hall forum

The SMART Transportation Division’s Anaheim, Calif., regional meeting began July 29 with a town hall forum at which SMART members were able to pose questions directly to the union’s leadership. More than 500 members, guests and presenters are attending the regional meeting. A [...]

Anaheim meeting opens with town hall forum

The SMART Transportation Division’s Anaheim, Calif., regional meeting began July 29 with a town hall forum at which SMART members were able to pose questions directly to the union’s leadership. More than 500 members, guests and presenters are attending the regional meet [...]

Federal judge sides with KCS on cameras

In an opinion released July 25, the U.S. District Court in Shreveport, La., ruled that the decision by Kansas City Southern Railway to install two inward-facing cameras in the cabs of its locomotives presents a “minor” dispute under the Railway Labor Act, paving the way for t [...]

Not In Our Town!

The catastrophic crash of an oil-filled freight train in a small Quebec town should serve as a warning to every community across North America about the dangers that come with transporting hazardous freight. Especially with inexperienced crews.  Right now, five bodies have be [...]

Railroad executive puzzled by police raid

Ed Burkhardt, chairman of the board of the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway, says he doesn’t know why police raided the company’s Quebec offices on Thursday, insisting that the company has been cooperating with police and federal authorites. “If they a [...]

Conductor alerts officials to fire at school

GALVA, Kansas — The crew of a passing freight train is getting the credit for spotting an overnight fire that damaged a middle school in central Kansas. Authorities believe lightning started the fire at Canton-Galva Middle School. Damage was confined to the gymnasium, where f [...]