Transportation News

Visit the digital archive of the SMART-TD News (PDFs)

TD members: Help to preserve SMART’s pension!

Dear members of SMART Transportation Division: Your help is needed to get the word out to certain members of Congress who want to take pension money from our Sheet Metal brothers and sisters and other union workers covered by multi-employer pension plans. A decade ago, in the [...]

Kansas company admits fault in causing Amtrak derailment; trial canceled

A feed company whose truck rolled down a hill and crashed into railroad tracks in Cimarron, Kan., in March 2016 has admitted fault and avoided a trial on the matter. Amtrak’s Southwest Chief derailed on those same tracks about 15 hours later, and 28 people aboard the Lo [...]

Open enrollment underway for UnitedHealthcare GA-23111

UnitedHealthcare has announced that enrollment is open under Group Policy GA-23111. From November through December 2018, any individual who is eligible for coverage under one of the GA-23111 plans can enroll and will be accepted for coverage without any medical underwriting o [...]

Happy Thanksgiving 2018

As families and friends gather to give thanks over this year’s holiday, let’s not forget the transportation workers who move people and cargo by road, rail and air safely to their destinations. An estimated 54.3 million travelers are hitting the road or taking to [...]

Canadian Class I executives foresee crude-by-rail growth come springtime

Executives from both Canadian National (CN) and Canadian Pacific (CP) said that they anticipate a boost in crude-by-rail traffic come springtime, Trains Magazine reports. Both CN Chief Financial Officer Ghislain Houle and CP Chief Marketing Officer John Brooks presented Nov. [...]

ERMA lifetime maximum benefit to increase in 2019

The lifetime maximum benefit for the Railroad Employees National Early Retirement Major Medical Benefit (ERMA or GA-46000) Plan will increase from $162,500 to $166,400 beginning Jan. 1, 2019. At the end of 2001, labor and management had agreed on various procedures to adminis [...]

RRB: Buyouts and Railroad Retirement Benefits

Railroad employees frequently ask the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) how the acceptance of a buyout from a railroad employer affects their future eligibility for benefits under the Railroad Retirement and Railroad Unemployment Insurance Acts. The following questions and answ [...]