Archive for February 2018
Opinion: Ignore the circus. Here’s what’s really going on with PTC
(Source: Railway Age opinion column by William C. Vantuono, February 16, 2018) NEW YORK — The railroad industry is making steady progress implementing Positive Train Control. You wouldn’t know it though, if you believed some of the choreographed histrionics the House Subcommittee on Railroads and its chairman displayed at a Feb. 15 hearing on PTC.…
Read MoreBNSF sent crews into a treacherous Stampede Pass blizzard, union tells WA lawmakers
(Source: Seattle Times, February 22, 2018) OLYMPIA, Wash. — A train workers’ union told a harrowing tale Thursday about ascending Stampede Pass in a blizzard, where a train broke apart, and a locomotive engineer spent 10 hours stranded inside the tunnel. The conductor made six trips through waist-deep snow in the dark and through the…
Read MoreSTB: Class Is start 2018 with smaller workforce
(Source: Progressive Railroading 02/21/2018) As of mid-January, Class Is in the United States employed 144,329 workers, down 0.75 percent since mid-December’s employment figure and down 2.76 percent compared with mid-January 2017’s level, according to the Surface Transportation Board. Five of six employment categories reflected workforce decreases in mid-January compared with mid-December. Those categories were executives, officials…
Read MoreNTSB Chair: No more delays on railway safety
(Source: The State opinion column by NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt, February 20, 2018) COLUMBIA, S.C. — Although the investigation is ongoing into the tragic Amtrak passenger train crash in Cayce, we knew immediately that a rail switch had been improperly set, diverting the Amtrak into a siding occupied by a stationary CSX train. Full story: The…
Read MoreBLET to conduct Legislative Representatives training class in July
INDEPENDENCE, Ohio, February 21 — The BLET Education & Training Department, in conjunction with the National Legislative Office, will conduct a training class for BLET Division Legislative Representatives in Washington, D.C., from July 10-12, 2018. The class will take place at the International Brotherhood of Teamsters headquarters. Classroom training begins at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday,…
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