Transportation News

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

High-speed rail in Calif., Northeast moving forward

High-speed rail has been given an energy-boosting vitamin B-12 shot by the California legislature and Amtrak for separate projects on the West and East Coasts. In California, the legislature agreed to spend $6 billion to build the first 130-mile leg of a 520-mile high-speed l [...]

Illinois derailment turns tragic

GLENVIEW, Ill. — Two bodies have been found under a collapsed railroad bridge here following the July 4 derailment of a 138-car Union Pacific coal train. The dead were in a a vehicle buried under the bridge wreckage. Authorities said more bodies of motorists could be fo [...]

Affordable Care Act eliminates many copays

UTU members with questions on how the Affordable Care Act will affect them and their families should visit the websites of their health care insurance carriers. For UTU members covered under the national railroad medical, prescription drug, dental, vision, and life insurance [...]

Congress retains Essential Air subsidies

Of importance to UTU-represented Great Lakes Airlines pilots and flight attendants, Congress has scrapped an attempt by conservatives to eliminate the Essential Air Service program. Great Lakes Airlines is the largest recipient of Essential Air Service grants, which helps kee [...]

New surface transport law a mixed bag

It’s not all we wanted, but, maybe more important, it’s not as bad as it could have been. Given the polarization of this Congress, the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century – MAP-21 – is as good a new transportation authorization bill as we could have hoped for. Passe [...]

TSA sets new TWIC renewal policy

WASHINGTON – The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has established a new policy on renewals of the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) – a tamper-resistant biometric worker-access pass — which is required of rail crews entering maritime por [...]

Conductor certification program available online

A slideshow presented to UTU members attending the union’s conductor certification workshop at the Portland, Ore., regional meeting is now available on the UTU website. The slideshow can be downloaded as a PowerPoint presentation by clicking here or in PDF format here. [...]

Services set for three victims of UP Okla. crash

Funeral arrangements have been announced for the three Union Pacific railroaders – UTU member and conductor Brian Stone and locomotive engineers John Hall and Dan Hall — who were killed June 24 in a head-on crash near Goodwell, Okla.    Services for Brian Stone, 49 [...]

We will not back down

By UTU International President Mike Futhey and SMWIA General President Joe Nigro –  We are just months from one of the most important Election Days in our careers. Not in our lifetimes has organized labor been under attack as we are today from corporate-funded anti-worker con [...]

UTU member among 3 dead in UP Okla. head-on

GUYMON, Okla. – Three Union Pacific crewmembers died in a June 24 head-on collision between two freight trains near here that produced a diesel fuel-fed fire so intense that the thick, black smoke could be seen for 10 miles and caused the closing of a nearby small airport and [...]