Transportation Trades Department

The Federal Railroad Administration has lowered the gates on railroads looking to move to one-person crews.

BNSF Railway reportedly furloughed hundreds of mechanical department workers at train yards in 4 states.

This AskWaves article looks at how a U.S. federal government shutdown would affect freight rail operations and proposed rail safety and economic rulemakings.

The Transportation Trades Department wants to know why the Class I railroads haven’t fully committed to a program that lets employees anonymously report safety concerns. The railroads say sticking points remain.

Calls to remove Surface Transportation Board Chairman Marty Oberman are misguided in light of regulatory efforts that Oberman and the current board have undertaken, labor groups tell President Joe Biden.

CPKC seeks to extend or make permanent a waiver that allows the railway to dispatch trains for three locations at its Calgary office.

The Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO wants Congress to pass a rail safety bill that addresses train crew sizes, train lengths and inspection times.

Unions representing locomotive engineers and train conductors are still working through some sticking points with railroads regarding work schedules, sources told FreightWaves.

Truck safety advocates and labor are at odds with big business over a request to loosen regulations for driverless trucks.

Union members are putting a spotlight on the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train in Ohio, with the Transportation Trades Department calling for greater safety oversight from the Federal Railroad Administration.

Republican lawmakers blame the Biden-backed $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill for boosting inflation and vow to step up oversight on how the money is spent.

In proposing a minimum train crew size of two members, FRA reverses its stance that crew size questions should be left to the railroads and the unions.

The Transportation Trades Department wants Congress to modify the language to ensure freight railroads provide adequate service.

Union Pacific is seeking to extend its tests on wheel temperature detectors, but the Transportation Trades Department disagrees with the way UP wants to deploy the technology.

The Federal Railroad Administration is now requiring the Class I railroads, Amtrak and commuter railroads to submit fatigue risk management plans annually to the agency.

BNSF has made some changes to the attendance policy that it implemented in February, but unions say the changes don’t go far enough to prevent worker fatigue.

The letter sent by the National Grain and Feed Association to regulators about subpar rail service is finding support among other rail industry stakeholders.

The union coalition calls on federal agencies and railroads to ensure attendance policies don’t result in overly fatigued locomotive engineers and train conductors.

Driver surveillance surfaces as a potential downside at a vehicle automation hearing.

Democratic leaders with the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure want the General Accountability Office to examine the effects that precision scheduled railroading has had on freight and passenger rail operations, rail safety and the labor workforce.

Labor groups tell DOT that automated vehicle policy should not be based on industry self-regulation.

Witnesses at a U.S. House hearing on Wednesday stressed the need for a multimodal approach in federal support of the railroads, citing freight rail’s connection with both rural, inland towns and coastal ports.

A U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling Tuesday vacated the Federal Railroad Administration’s May 2019 order on train crew size, saying the agency didn’t conduct an adequate public review prior to the order.

Freight rail groups and others congratulate the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, on his nomination to lead DOT; also, U.S. weekly rail volumes rise nearly 5% year-over-year

Larry Willis, president of the Transportation Trades Department for the AFL-CIO, died Sunday after sustaining injuries in a biking incident.

The groups want the Federal Railroad Administration to ensure that railroads’ requests to waive certain regulations stem from a true labor shortage.

Freight rail trade and labor groups applaud the U.S. federal government for passing the $2 trillion stimulus package aimed at stabilizing the American economy amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The Class I railroads furlough workers in times of lower volumes but unions think the cuts have been too deep as a result of precision scheduled railroading.