Win trip to Washington through UTU PAC contest

The SMART Transportation Division’s Legislative Office in Washington has announced a contest for SMART TD members, with a three-day, two-night, all-expenses-paid trip to our nation’s capital as the grand prize. The SMART TD member who raises and returns the largest amount of [...]

Behind the Rail Explosion, Too Few Railroaders

Much attention concerning the Quebec rail disaster has focused on the danger of transporting oil by rail. But pipelines come with hazards, too. For example, a natural gas pipeline exploded in southeast New Mexico in 2000, killing 12. Earlier this year, an Exxon Mobil pipeline [...]

Amtrak foe Mica meets his match

I just sat through a pretty boring hearing on rail financing. But I’m glad I stuck it out, because the fireworks came at the end, when Rep. John Mica picked a fight with the wrong man. John Robert Smith is familiar face in transportation reform circles. The former Republican [...]

FMCSA posts transportation training grants for vets

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) July 3 announced almost $1 million in new grants to help train veterans and military families for jobs in the transportation industry. The grants were awarded to six [...]

Quebec oil train derailment sparks criminal probe

LAC-MEGANTIC, Quebec – Quebec police are pursuing a painstaking, wide-ranging criminal investigation of the inferno ignited by the derailment of a runaway oil train that killed at least 15 people and left dozens missing in the burned-out ruins of a downtown district. Quebec p [...]

Sen. Casey to Congress: Don’t cut Amtrak funding

Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. (D., Pa.) made a whistle-stop plea July 8 for Congress to block efforts to cut Amtrak funding 31 percent. Casey said $350 million in cuts proposed by House Republicans would cost Amtrak workers their jobs and Amtrak passengers their rides. Read the co [...]