WASHINGTON—State departments of transportation, which have long relied on gasoline and diesel fuel taxes to fund highways and transit programs, are asking Congress to replace the decades old pennies-per-gallon tax with a flat percentage tax, reports Dow Jones newswire. The ch [...]
HOPE, Ark. – Amtrak President Joseph Boardman told an audience here last week that poor service and arrogance were to blame for Amtrak’s loss of the contract to operate the Virginia Railway Express, reports the Hope Star newspaper. The commuter service contract [...]
A Norfolk Southern sought lease of trackage to a newly created short line railroad in Michigan is being opposed by the UTU and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, which represent affected train and engine workers. The U.S. Surface Transportation Board (STB) [...]
It’s billed as the world’s longest tunnel – 35.4 miles long — and it’s been 60 years in the planning and digging. It’s in Switzerland. The Gotthard Base Tunnel is the backbone of a proposed high-speed freight and passenger rail network through Europe, according to vario [...]
A new light rail line from downtown Los Angeles to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is moving closer to reality thorough a $546 million federal loan to Los Angeles County, reports the Associated Press. The almost nine-mile line is expected to create 5,000 jobs; and, eq [...]
Siemens, an international engineering firm with its U.S. headquarters in Washington, D.C., and plants throughout the United States, is hungry to build high-speed train sets for a proposed Florida high-speed rail line. Tampa Bay online (tbo.com) reports that Siemens, which has [...]
For the first 40 weeks of this year – through Oct. 9 – rail carloadings are up almost 10 percent over last year, and intermodal loadings have soared by more than 15 percent, according to data from the Association of American Railroads. For the week ending Oct. 9, intermodal w [...]
UTU bus members know the violence aboard school buses all too well. The latest shocking outbreak occurred on Long Island, N.Y., last week, when a 14-year-old boy was beaten aboard a school bus over allegations he is gay, according to Longislandpress.com. The UTU is working wi [...]
By Bonnie Morr, Alternate vice president, Bus Department Right now in our country, economics are spelling out what transit and transportation will look like, now and in the future. The UTU Bus Department has been following politics and the trends for funding that are necessar [...]
With 86 percent voting in favor, UTU-represented signal maintainers, mechanical forces and maintenance-of-way employees on Illinois & Midland Railroad (IMRR) have ratified a new five-year contract covering wages, benefits and working conditions. Illinois & Midland is [...]
