Rail & Labor News from RWU
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Weekly Digest Number 43 - October 24, 2023 | |
Welcome to the RWU Rail & Labor News! This news bulletin is produced and emailed out each Tuesday morning. We hope you find each week's news and information useful. If so, please share with co-workers, friends, and colleagues. If you like, you can sign them up to get all the news from RWU HERE. Or forward them the link. Note: If you read over this news bulletin each week, you will be sure to never miss the important news of what is going on in the railroad world from a worker's perspective!
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Editor's Note: The more that gets exposed about the 'fix' being in for the sale, the greater the chance we may actually win and keep the Cincinnati Southern in public hands! | |
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Dan Monk, Oct 16, 2023
The campaign to sell Cincinnati’s railroad to Norfolk Southern Corp. has spent more than $600,000 on TV ads promoting the sale... Building Cincinnati’s Future and the mayor’s re-election campaign share the same treasurer. “It might not be against the law, but it doesn’t pass the smell test,” said former Cincinnati Vice-Mayor Christopher Smitherman.
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Editor's Note: Besides Norfolk Southern's local political manipulations we hope Cincinnatians take into account what happened to their nearby neighbors in East Palestine. Profit at any cost destroys communities. | |
Julia Rock
Next month, the company behind an Ohio train derailment that triggered a toxic inferno and national scandal could close a lucrative deal: At the urging of elected officials and company executives, the state’s third-largest city could sell railroad giant Norfolk Southern more than 300 miles of track — one of the last publicly-owned stretches of rail line in America.
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Editor's Note: The Signalmen's union (BRS) must proceed with caution here, as NS and the other carriers have a long and sordid history of luring union officials into "joint" safety efforts where the carrier in actuality controls the "program", offers perks and privileges to union officials who take part, and ultimately those who speak up and speak out do face adverse impavts at the hand of the carrier. | |
Progressive Railroading
Norfolk Southern Railway and the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen (BRS) have formed a partnership to create the Signal Safety Collaboration. To ensure all participants provide candid, critical feedback, the railroad "has underscored its commitment that no one will face adverse impacts from input they provide through the program," NS officials said.
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Editor's Note: Another high profile wreck in which a man was killed has propelled rail safety back into the spotlight this past week. | |
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Progresive Railroading
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the Oct. 15 BNSF Railway Co. coal-train derailment off a bridge over Interstate 25 near Pueblo, Colorado. A truck driver was killed in the accident. Photos taken by the Colorado State Patrol show a partially collapsed bridge with the semi-truck caught underneath. The photos also show rail cars and coal scattered on the road.Thirty-nine rail cars of the 124 being hauled derailed, according to the NTSB.
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Editor's Note: As usual, the feds are urging a series of recommendations for the rail carriers to follow, leaving it strictly up the them as to if and when they implement any of these ideas. We need rules to protect railroad worker lives! | |
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Safety and Health Magazine
Concerned by the deaths of two workers struck by roadway maintenance machines in separate instances within the past two years, the Federal Railroad Administration has issued a safety advisory. The agency calls on all railroads and contractors to review and update rules regarding these machines...
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Editor's Note: The could represent the beginning of a dramatic development in passenger rail transport in Canada. | |
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by Carolina Worrell 10/16
Transport Canada on Oct. 13 announced the official launch of the Request for Proposals (RFP) for the High Frequency Rail (HFR) project...a “transformational project that will fundamentally change the way Canadians travel in southern Québec and Ontario...
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Editor's Note: While RWU applauds the fact that federal money is going to rail development, these actions always beg the question: Why can't a highly profitable private industry (rail) plow its profits back into capital projects of this nature? And if the citizens are to subsidize this infrastructure, perhaps we should own and control it. | |
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By Julie Sneider 10/16/23
Rail-improvement projects received a combined $1.4 billion in CRISI grants for fiscal-year 2022... Grants were awarded for projects aimed at improving connectivity, reducing shipping costs, increasing resiliency to extreme weather, cutting emissions and supporting workforce development efforts, according to an FRA press release.
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Editor's Note: Battery powered locomotives are the next best choice after installing catenary, and far more logical than hydrogen power. | |
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Progressive Railroading / 10/17/23
Metra will receive a $169.3 million federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) grant to buy up to 16 battery-powered, zero-emission trainsets. Buying the trainsets would enable Metra to eliminate carbon emissions, retire some of its oldest rail cars and retire its oldest, most polluting diesel locomotives, which are well beyond their useful life, agency officials said.
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Editor's Note: This article explains some of the reasons why passenger trains in the U.S. are chronically late. The biggest factor by far? You guessed it "freight train interference." And this continues despite the fact that the Class One rail carriers are moving 21% less freight in 2022 than in 2006! | |
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Christopher Elliott / October 15, 2023
Anyone who travels by train in the United States knows that feeling. In the latest quarter, Amtrak trains were delayed 1.42 million minutes, up 9% from the previous quarter and an increase of 10% from 2022. It’s particularly bad on Gore’s route, the Sunset Limited. Over the last year, passengers have been delayed by a total of 11 weeks and only 28% of trains are on time, according to Amtrak.
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NEWS FROM AROUND THE LABOR MOVEMENT | |
Editor's Note: Logistics workers in North America are on the move, from rail, longshore, warehouse and trucking. Interestingly, the union involved here - UNIFOR - also represents thousands of Canadian rail workers. | |
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Ian Putzger / 23/10/2023
Shipping on the St Lawrence Seaway between Montreal and Lake Erie ground to a halt on Sunday after 361 workers in the Unifor labour union in Ontario and Quebec walked off the job. According to Unifor, the two sides have been “1,000 nautical miles” apart on the question of remuneration, the main sticking point in the negotiations, which began in June after the labour contract expired. The shutdown of the system is not affecting intra-US shipping in the Great Lakes system, but 13 of the 15 locks in the St Lawrence Seaway are in Canada, so traffic to between US points in the system and markets in Canada and beyond has ceased.
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Weekly Derailment Department | | | | |
