BLET News
Transport safety rules for trucks and trains have been sidelined under President Trump
(Source: Associated Press, February 26, 2018) WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump is putting the brakes on attempts to address dangerous safety problems from speeding tractor-trailers to sleepy railroad engineers as part of his quest to roll back regulations across the government, according to a review by The Associated Press of Transportation Department rule-making activities.…
Read MoreOpinion: 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 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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