BLET News

(Source: Federal Railroad Administration press release, March 14, 2020) WASHINGTON, D.C. — Pursuant to Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) § 211.45, Federal Railroad Administration Administrator Ronald L. Batory has determined that the imminent threat and exposure to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) poses a risk of serious illness that constitutes an “emergency…

INDEPENDENCE, Ohio, March 17 — After more than seven years of hard word by the BLET’s Washington State Legislative Board and their counterparts within the SMART Transportation Division, a two-person crew bill has passed both chambers of the state legislature in Washington. The bill is currently on the desk of Governor Jay Inslee awaiting his…

(Source: Safety and Health Magazine, March 10, 2020) WASHINGTON, D.C. — Effective April 20, the Federal Railroad Administration is requiring the nation’s largest freight railroads – known as Class I – and smaller freight railroads with “inadequate safety performance” to develop and implement a formal risk reduction program. However, Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR), chair of…

(Source: Railway Age, March 5, 2020) NEW YORK — The first signs of physical progress have been made in BNSF Railway’s long-awaited plan to build a second bridge, nearly a mile in length, running parallel to its existing bridge across Lake Pend Oreille near Sandpoint, Idaho. Preliminary grading began in September 2019 on both sides…

(Source: Standard-Examiner, March 8, 2020) SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — Union Pacific lobbyists are clashing with two top legislators over a bill that would remove railroads’ state fuel tax exemption and use the resulting millions to build overpasses at chronically blocked rail crossings. Full story: Standard-Examiner Monday, March 9, 2020