U.S. governors and mayors are pushing Congress to quickly reauthorize long-term legislation to fund transportation projects across the country, fearing that any lapse in funding could disrupt existing projects and hurt local economies. Testifying at a Tuesday hearing before t [...]
Congressional conference committee members cobbling together an actual fiscal year 2014 federal budget have reportedly agreed on budgetary numbers fairly favorable to Amtrak and Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) programs. Federal high speed rail f [...]
The fatal derailment of a Metro-North train at the southern tip of the Bronx last month has spurred Capitol Hill lawmakers to boost the federal government’s “woefully underfunded” rail inspection program. The bipartisan spending deal reached Monday night by Republican and Dem [...]
We are pleased, as your general president and transportation division president, to present the first SMART Constitution and ritual to our membership. This is a milestone for both the former Sheet Metal Workers’ International Association and the United Transportation Union, t [...]
Two U.S. senators say a federal rail safety agency plans to propose a rule regarding the installation of video cameras aboard trains to monitor drivers and record accidents. Sen. Charles Schumer, of New York, and Richard Blumenthal, of Connecticut, said Sunday that they had b [...]
The Federal Motor Carrier Administration (FMCSA) Jan. 10 announced that it is extending by one year, until Jan. 30, 2015, a requirement that interstate commercial driver’s license (CDL) holders retain paper copies of their medical examiner’s certificate and continue to make t [...]
Two former leading U.S. transportation officials who left the Obama administration in recent months were named on Wednesday to new private-sector posts. Ray LaHood, the former U.S. Secretary of Transportation, will join a Washington, D.C-based advocacy group, where he will pu [...]
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s board of directors today unanimously voted to accept the T’s recommendation that Keolis, a French rail company, take over operation of the state’s commuter rail system, winning the state’s largest operating contract in history. [...]
SMART Transportation Division Auditor Stephen A. Noyes has retired, effective Dec. 31, 2013, after 42 years of continuous membership. The duties formerly performed by Noyes will now be shared by Transportation Division Auditors Bobby Brantley and Mike Araujo. Local treasurers [...]
LOS ANGELES — Gov. Jerry Brown of California is riding into an election year on a wave of popularity and an upturn in the state’s fortunes. But a project that has become a personal crusade for him over the past two years — a 520-mile high-speed train line from Los Angeles to [...]
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