BLET News

(Source: Toronto Star, December 1, 2019) CALGARY — Fatigue was one of the major factors behind a recent weeklong strike by 3,200 CN workers represented by the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference. According to fatigue experts and past research, railway crews awake for more than 17 hours can be as impaired as a drunk driver with…

(Source: Association of American Railroads press release, November 27, 2019) WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Association of American Railroads (AAR) today reported U.S. rail traffic for the week ending November 23, 2019. For this week, total U.S. weekly rail traffic was 521,927 carloads and intermodal units, up 10.6 percent compared with the same week last year. Total…

(Source: The Daily Star, November 26, 2019) ONEONTA, N.Y. — The annual Capital Region Toys for Tots train, which makes stops in Cobleskill, Oneonta and Bainbridge, will not be running this year, according to officials. Instead, a convoy of tractor trailers, buses and emergency vehicles will deliver the toys, said Patrick Lurenz, Capital Region Toys…

(Source: Federal Railroad Administration press release, November 25, 2019) ABSTRACT: The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) today released a quarterly status update on railroads’ self-reported progress toward fully implementing positive train control (PTC) systems. Based on railroads’ Third Quarter 2019 (Q3) PTC Progress Reports which were due to FRA by October 31, 2019, the majority of the…

(Source: Teamsters Canada press release, November 25, 2019) MONTREAL — Teamsters Canada today released a recording of a CN supervisor, a chief rail traffic controller (RTC), ordering a fatigued conductor to continue working for several hours. The chief RTC ignored pleas from the conductor, a railroader with over 30 years of experience, that he and the…