Transportation News

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Commuter train derails at Chicago airport

CHICAGO – An eight-car Chicago commuter train plowed across a platform and scaled an escalator at an underground station at one of the nation’s busiest airports early Monday, injuring 32 people on board, officials said. No one suffered life-threatening injuries in the B [...]

Measure to save Southwest Chief passes Colo. House

PUEBLO, Colo. – A bill to save Amtrak’s Southwest Chief rail line through Southeastern Colorado passed the state House March 19, Pueblo County Commissioner Sal Pace said. HB14-1161, sponsored by Rep. Leroy Garcia, D-Pueblo, passed on a 44-20 vote. Read the complete story at T [...]

Join Amtrak in Celebration of ‘Why Trains Matter’

WASHINGTON – Amtrak invites America to celebrate the many benefits trains bring to the nation at the seventh annual National Train Day on May 10, 2014. Trains are an integral part of daily American life and connect communities, provide jobs and economic development, support l [...]

Schumer wants feds to review LIRR safety practices

The federal government needs to do a top-to-bottom review of the Long Island Rail Road to see if it is “rotten” and rife with safety problems like its sister agency, the Metro-North Railroad, Sen. Charles Schumer said Tuesday, March 18. The Federal Railroad Administration las [...]

Amtrak seeks new funding policy in budget request

WASHINGTON – In its Fiscal Year 2015 budget request to Congress, Amtrak is seeking a change in federal passenger rail investment and warns that continuation of current funding levels leave Northeast Corridor infrastructure vulnerable to a bigger, costlier and far more damagin [...]

Americans Do Not Want Bigger Trucks on Highways

Constituents in Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky and eight congressional districts – Pa. Dist. 9, Iowa Dist. 3, Colo. Dist. 4, Kan. Dist. 1, Kan. Dist. 2, Ill. Dist. 13, Ind. Dist. 4 and Mo. Dist. 8 – overwhelmingly disapprove increasing truck weight limits from the current 80,00 [...]

BNSF Planning to Add 5,000 Workers in 2014

Fort Worth-based BNSF Railway plans to hire 5,000 workers this year as part of a $5 billion investment in the railroad, Carl Ice, the company’s new president and CEO, said this morning during an interview on CNBC. Ice, who recently took over the CEO post from Matt Rose, said [...]

Great Lakes Airlines to leave N.D.

BISMARCK, N.D. – Great Lakes Airlines will be leaving North Dakota by the end of the month after serving the state for more than two decades. The Wyoming-based regional airline announced last week that it was suspending service to Dickinson and Williston. In January, it pulle [...]

RRB explains benefits under Railroad Retirement, SSA

Employers and employees covered by the Railroad Retirement Act pay higher retirement taxes than those covered by the Social Security Act, so that railroad retirement benefits remain higher than social security benefits, especially for “career” employees who have 30 or more ye [...]

FMCSA seeks electronic logbooks in bus industry

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) March 13 announced a proposal to require interstate commercial truck and bus companies to use Electronic Logging Devices (ELDs) in their vehicles to improve complian [...]