News - Page 527 of 656

Anaheim meeting opens with town hall forum

July 30, 2013 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 [...]

Industry fights safety retrofit of older rail cars

July 30, 2013 The oil industry and U.S railroads are resisting the Obama administration’s attempt to boost safety standards for the type of rail car involved in a fiery, fatal explosion in Canada, citing costs and technical challenges. Industry groups say it is impractical to retrofi [...]

Tags AAR, Montreal Maine & Atlantic Railway, oil

Anaheim meeting opens with town hall forum

Federal judge sides with KCS on cameras

July 30, 2013 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 [...]

Tags cameras, KCS

Not In Our Town!

July 29, 2013 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 [...]

Obama calls for more infrastructure investment

July 28, 2013 JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — President Barack Obama in a speech in Jacksonville, Fla., Thursday urged Congress to pass a bill to fund infrastructure projects and investments. Obama delivered the speech, his third consecutive talk on the economy, at the Port Terminal Building at [...]

Tags infrastructure investment, Obama

Railroad executive puzzled by police raid

July 28, 2013 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

July 28, 2013 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 [...]

Crashes traumatic for railroad employees

July 28, 2013 Crashes are traumatic for both victims and the railroad employees who witness the tragedies unfold. An average freight train has 100 cars and at least two engines, a total package weighing as much as 6,000 tons. Traveling at 55 mph, such a train takes at least a mile to come [...]

Tags train crash

Around the UTU, June 2013

July 25, 2013 Local 202, Denver, Colo. The members of this local are asking for donations to assist the family of 40-year member John D. Velasquez, whose wife, Louise, is in need of liver and kidney transplants. She is suffering from non-alcoholic, fatty liver disease. “John was planning o [...]