Transportation News

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

Bus travel gives other modes run for the money

Buses are starting to give airlines, trains, and even cars a run for their money. With spiffed up coaches, internet reservations, and often significantly cheaper fares, bus travel is becoming an increasingly popular alternative to flying, taking the train and even driving you [...]

SMART To Seek Two-Person Crew Laws By State

CLEVELAND – As part of an ongoing effort to secure a law mandating a minimum of two crew members in the cab of all locomotives, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) and the Transportation Division of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Ra [...]

First Transit operators at U. of Tenn. go SMART

Campus shuttle operators for the University of Tennessee’s transportation service chose the SMART Transportation Division as their collective bargaining representative in a representation election April 16. Of the approximately 50 eligible voters, 26 voted for SMART, 10 voted [...]

AFL-CIO's TTD thanks Foxx for engaging labor

WASHINGTON – Edward Wytkind, president of the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department, issued this statement in support of U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx’s effort to highlight the importance of investing in America’s surface transportation nee [...]

Rail workers' health issues a growing safety concern

Visibility was 10 miles and the morning sun had pushed the temperature close to 90 as Danny Joe Hall guided his mile-long Union Pacific freight train east through the grasslands of the Oklahoma Panhandle. Near the farming town of Goodwell, federal investigators said, the 56-y [...]

DNA swab kits to help MTA bus drivers bust spitters

The MTA is about to get a little more CSI. City bus drivers will soon be armed with DNA swabs to gather evidence in the all-too-common event of an unhinged passenger spitting on them. Transit workers catch a loogie 14 times a month, the MTA estimated in 2011. Read more from t [...]

AAR issues safety alert: Razor blade on appliance

The Association of American Railroads issued a a safety alert for all railroads in North America after the recent discovery of a razor blade wedged into a safety appliance handhold on a covered hopper car. The condition was discovered by a shop worker from the Anderson’ [...]

Previsch, TTD inform lawmakers about Amtrak

A column by SMART Transportation Division President John Previsich and AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department President Edward Wytkind informing lawmakers about the public’s support for Amtrak was published April 16 by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. In response to the c [...]

AAR: FCC policies delaying PTC

WASHINGTON – In a new report updating the industry’s progress on installing positive train control, the nation’s freight railroads said that a year-long moratorium on installing 20,000 communication antennas imposed by the Federal Communications Commission, followed by a leng [...]

Ex-NJT rail chief lands job with N.Y. MTA

NJ Transit’s former railroad chief, who was pushed out in March following two tumultuous years that included the flooding of nearly 400 rail cars and locomotives during Superstorm Sandy, has landed a job within New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Kevin O’Connor, [...]