Rail & Labor News from RWU
| | Weekly Digest Number 6 - February 10, 2026 | | 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. Got a hot tip? Please forward the article and a link to raillabornews@gmail.com. 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! | | THIS WEEK'S RAIL AND LABOR NEWS | | Editor's Note: For years, NO new rail safety legislation has been adopted by the feds. Following the wreck at East Palestine, OH 3 years ago, there were endless bi-partisan calls for such, including from now VP J.D. Vance. Sadly, NO legislation has been adopted. The rail industry has deep pockets and is lawyered up, and has made sure that no new legislation concerning rail safety will be passed by Congress. In their view, it is all "red tape and regulation." Next time you hear that insidious phrase, think of East Palestine, OH. | |
Progressive Railroading / February 4th
Mayors, rail union leaders and federal lawmakers yesterday held a press conference to call on Congress to pass rail safety reform legislation.
The gathering marked the third anniversary of the Norfolk Southern Railway train derailment and subsequent fire in East Palestine, Ohio. U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.) and a bipartisan group of Congress members called for the Railway Safety Act bill to pass through the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee or be included in upcoming surface transportation reauthorization legislation.
Deluzio, whose district is just across the Pennsylvania and Ohio border close to where the derailment occurred, introduced the bill last year. At the press conference, he called out big railroads for opposing his "commonsense" rail safety reforms.
| | Editor's Note: NTSB Reports can be worth reading to get to the bottom of why rail accidents, injuries and fatalities occur. While not perfect, they often point to failures in the system and operations of the corporation. Often, common sense solutions are recommended to the rail carrier involved. In most cases, the rail carrier does nothing in response. Why? Because NTSB issues recommendations that are not binding. Oh, and to implent them would cost monry. | |
Progressive Railroading / February 5th
The National Transportation Safety Board in recent weeks has released a number of reports and investigative updates into several rail accidents.
Following are summaries of those reports.
NTSB concluded that Metropolitan Atlanta rapid Transit Authority's (MARTA) procedures for track protection were insufficient and as a result behind the probable cause of a technician's injury after being struck by a MARTA train on Oct. 19, 2024, in Atlanta. The technician was struck while doing maintenance work on wayside train approach lights. The NTSB concluded that MARTA's procedures were insufficient for the location and type of work being performed and did not provide adequate warning time for technicians to move to safety before the train arrived.
Contributing to the accident was the designated lookout person performing tasks not consistent with his duties, thereby failing to detect the oncoming train.
| | Editor's Note: This money was approved and authorized by Congress to be spent to rebuild this vital but antiquated infrastructure. The threat to the vitality of the NE Corridor - to say nothing of the tens of thousands of union jobs - is unconscionable and probably illegal. The U.S. government's word has to count for something. Just because an Administration changes does not mean that we are no longer a nation of laws, honesty and follow through. | |
Progressive Railroading / February 6th
Construction of the Hudson Tunnel project will be suspended at 5 p.m. Eastern time today because disbursements of federal funding obligated to the project remain paused, the Gateway Development Commission announced.
Four major procurements that comprise the remaining construction packages for the project also will be on hold until funding is restored, Gateway officials said in a press release. The commission oversees the project.
The Trump administration has suspended the release of the federal government's contractually obligated funds since Oct. 1, 2025.
The $16 billion project entails constructing and rehabilitating rail tunnel infrastructure under the Hudson River between New York City and New Jersey. The tunnel project is a key component of the Gateway program to improve rail transportation in the Northeast Corridor. The majority of the project's budget is funded by federal grants and loans.
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| Editor's Note: The development of batteries has come a long way in recent years. This development in the UK proves their fantastic abilities. Combined with overhead catenary, electric train operations are the wave of the future. Time for the US to get on board this train and catch up! | |
Rail UK / January 30th
Great Western Railway (GWR) will introduce the UK’s first battery-only powered train into passenger service on Saturday 31 January.
The Class 230 train has been used for a successful trial of fast-charge technology on the Greenford branch line over the past 22 months.
Up until now it has undergone rigorous trials, but on Saturday it will replace its diesel counterpart, starting with the 05:30 departure from West Ealing to Greenford.
Last year the train set a new World Record for the furthest distance travelled by a battery-electric train on a single charge, registering 200.5 miles and beating Stadler Deutschland’s record of 139 miles set in 2021.
| | Editor's Note: It is high time that these MOW incidents become few and far between. In the 21st century given all of the modern technology and equipment, these workers should not be subject to regularly dying on the tracks. | |
NTSB / January 20th
On November 4, 2024, about 11:00 a.m. local time, a BNSF Railway (BNSF) maintenance-of-way (MOW) employee driving a welding truck was fatally struck by a BNSF freight train as the welding truck was crossing a private highway-railroad grade crossing (grade crossing) at milepost 128.1 near New Rockford, North Dakota.1 (See figure 1.) Another BNSF MOW employee who was on the passenger side of the welding truck was injured, transported to a nearby hospital, and released. BNSF estimated damages to equipment to be about $250,000. At the time of the accident, visibility conditions were daylight but cloudy with about 4 miles visibility; the weather was 36°F with no precipitation but the ground was wet and soggy.
| | Editor's Note: When European railway workers take industrial action, they do not mess around. Can you imagine these sorts of strikes taking place in North America? Maybe we need to start imaging - and then realizing - them! | |
Reuters / February 2nd
Commuters across Germany faced freezing temperatures and empty platforms on Monday as tens of thousands of public transport workers walked off the job in a strike called by trade union Verdi, shutting down bus and tram services in most cities.
Verdi, which represents nearly 100,000 transport workers, called the strike after talks with municipal and state employers over working conditions stalled last week.
The union is demanding shorter shifts, longer rest breaks and higher pay for night and weekend work even as cities grapple with budget constraints.
The walkout affects about 150 municipal transport companies in all but one of Germany's 16 federal states, including Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen.
| | Editor's Note: It is fortuitous that this issue rear its ugly head at this time. While UP claims its desired merger with NS will increase competition, its actions show at every turn that the railroad's daily reality is to stymie competition at every turn. The prime example is referenced in this article where the mainline (welded rail, CTC) across Tennessee Pass has been embargoed for 25 years. UP refuses to use it, lease it or sell it. | |
Trains Magazine / January 30th
Colorado Pacific Railroad and Weskan Grain, two subsidiaries of the Soloviev Group, this week filed a federal court suit that alleges Union Pacific Railroad and regional railroad Kansas & Oklahoma have conspired to prevent westbound grain moves over Colorado Pacific.
The plaintiffs claimed that UP and Watco Cos.’ K&O are using a $500 per car interchange fee to effectively prevent farmers located on the K&O from shipping export grain west over Colorado Pacific to an interchange with UP and BNSF Railway at NA Junction in Colorado. The junction is near Boone, Colo., and about 25 miles east of Pueblo.
Both UP and K&O, one of Watco’s 30 regional and shortline railroads, denied the allegations.
Colorado Pacific bought 122 miles of track in 2018 from NA Junction to an interchange with the K&O at Towner, Colo., about 60 miles west of Scott City, Kansas. The railroad rebuilt the property it calls the Towner line, where no traffic had moved for more than two decades, seeking to move grain from elevators on K&O in the Scott City area, including two Weskan facilities.
| | Editor's Note: There is a lot of lightly used or out of service mainline trackage in Colorado that is just begging for passenger service. Colorado has a lot of it and can become a showcase for a state that re-connects its citizens - urban and rural - along with tourists, by a regional rail network. Since the Union Pacific takeover of Rio Grande - SP 30 years ago, hundreds of good rail jobs in Colorado went down the drain. This development could bring them back. | |
Steamboat Pilot & Today / February 2nd
Members of the Mountain Rail Coalition gathered virtually on Jan. 22 to celebrate key milestones, strategize on sustaining political support and advance station planning as the Colorado Department of Transportation prepares to launch Phase 1 passenger rail service this November.
Around 20 stakeholders from mountain communities across Colorado — including county officials, transportation commissioners and CDOT representatives — heard updates on governor briefings, new state legislation and local infrastructure projects.
The Mountain Rail service is expected to begin year-round daily service between Denver and Granby by 2026, with future expansions planned to Winter Park, Steamboat Springs, Craig and Hayden.
| | Editor's Note: Another wreck that apparently is the fault of long and heavy trains and poor maintenance. Again, these are easily preventable and should not be occurring in this day and age. We know why they happen, we know how to avoid them, and the carriers fail to take action. | |
Trains Magazine / February 3rd
Rail creep was detected and track buckling was likely involved in the derailment of a Canadian National grain train near Devlin, Ontario, in June 2025, according to a Transportation Safety Board of Canada investigation report released today (Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026).
The track issues reflect the forces exerted by heavy-tonnage traffic, most of which is moving in a single direction, the report indicates.
The June 28 derailment occurred at mile 101.1 on CN’s Fort Frances Subdivision, and involved a 134-car grain train eastbound from Winnipeg to Thunder Bay, Ont., with one locomotive on the head end and one distributed power unit at the rear. The train was 7,853 feet long and weighed 18,578 tons. It was traveling around a curve at 41 mph when a train-initiated emergency air brake application occurred about 1:40 p.m., after which the crew found 13 cars had derailed near the end of the train, in positions 119 to 132. Most were extensively damaged and spilled their cargo. There were no injuries.
| | Editor's Note: This is one of the more bizarre Weekly Reports for rail car loadings in recent memory. After a pretty bad 4th quarter showing a major reduction in carloadings, things seemed to be rebounding in January in recent weeks. Now this dramatic decline in both intermodal and carload traffic in Week #4. | |
Progressive Railroading / February 5th
U.S. freight railroads hauled 434,361 carloads and intermodal units during the week ending Jan. 31, down 15.5% compared with traffic from the same week in 2025, according to Association of American Railroads data.
Carloads for the week totaled 191,188, down 14%, while weekly intermodal volume totaled 243,173 containers and trailers, down 16.6%.
Only one of the 10 carload commodity groups tracked by the AAR each week posted an increase. It was grain, up 2.9% to 22,655 carloads. Commodity groups that posted decreases included coal, down 16.5% to 50,189 carloads; nonmetallic minerals, down 29.8% to 18,702; and motor vehicles and parts, down 27.9% to 11,311.
Canadian railroads reported 87,405 carloads for the week, down 3.1%, and 60,594 intermodal units, down 15%. Mexican railroads posted 13,472 carloads, up 4%, and 14,828 intermodal units, up 25.9%.
| | Editor's Note: RWU has begun to explore ways that we can work together with Jess Conard and the Halt the Harm Network around rail safety issues of mutual concern including the UP-NS merger, minimum crew size, long and heavy trains and more. Rail workers and our unions need to build these labor-community alliances. We have their back, they have ours! | |
WKBN / February 5th
This week marks the three-year anniversary of the East Palestine train derailment. We reported on new health studies to measure the effects of the disaster.
One person impacted by the chemical disaster wants to help others should a train derail in their town and she’s started a group to share what she’s learned.
Jess Conard knows the heartbreak of the East Palestine train derailment. Three years ago, a train was on fire, it passed behind where she was living, and could’ve derailed right there.
“I want to catalyze the crisis in EP into something that can benefit everyone,” said Conard.
| | NEWS FROM AROUND THE LABOR MOVEMENT | | Each week, RWU includes a few articles about advances and developments in the larger labor movement that are of interest to railroad workers. Got an artcile to submit for possible inclusion next week? Email it along to raillabornews@gmail.com. Thank you! | | Editor's Note: General strikes in key cities in the 1930s jump started the labor movement and propelled the CIO into an organizing machine that changed the face of working class America. We can do it again! | |
Labor Notes / January 30th
On January 23, Minnesota unions and community organizations seized the public imagination with “a Day of Truth and Freedom,” an economic blackout that drew perhaps 100,000 marchers to downtown Minneapolis.
The Twin Cities have been under siege from federal agents since December. Minnesotans have formed dense networks from the bottom up to patrol neighborhoods, feed the hungry, and train everyday people to scout for rampaging Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents hunting for their immigrant and citizen neighbors. They upped the ante by organizing a general strike with political demands to oust ICE out of their state, deny it any additional federal funding, and hold legally accountable the officer who killed Renee Good.
A new poll conducted by the firm Blue Rose Research shows that almost a quarter of Minnesotans say they took part in what organizers called “a day of no work, no shopping, no school.” A thousand demonstrators protested at the airport alongside 100 clergy, while a sea of tens of thousands marched downtown, and 1,000 businesses closed for the day.
| | Editor's Note: If ratified by the rank and file, this contract will mark a major milestone for organized labor. Hopefully, southern auto workers - and all workers - will see the great benefits of a union contract and representation, and together with other union victories, jump start a re-birth of the labor movement in the U.S. in the coming months and years. | |
UAW / February 5th
Autoworkers at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga plant have won a historic tentative agreement with the company. After making history as the first Southern autoworkers outside the Big Three to join the UAW, the 3,200 workers at Volkswagen Chattanooga have won a tentative contract deal that provides 20 percent across-the-board wage increases, affordable health care, real job security, and more.
After workers voted 3-to-1 to join the UAW in 2024, they elected a 20-member negotiating committee of their peers. After months of negotiations, the tentative deal marks a breakthrough for non-union autoworkers and manufacturing workers across the South. The tentative deal ensures that Volkswagen workers have a legally binding and enforceable agreement that guarantees fair pay, more affordable health care, safer working conditions, and clear protections against favoritism.
“For years, Chattanooga workers were told to settle for less while Volkswagen made record profits. So, the workers stood together and won their union—and now they’ve secured a life-changing first agreement,” said UAW President Shawn Fain. “This deal proves what happens when autoworkers stand up and demand their fair share. People said Southern autoworkers could never form a union or win a union contract. Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga said, ‘Watch this.’”
| | Editor's Note: One cannot help but wonder if we are on the threshold of a massive recession. These statistics should alarm working people, as should the dramatic drop in rail freight moved last week (see article above), as the rail industry is a biot of a bell weather as to the state of the industrial economy. Time will tell. Hold onto your hat! | | |
Common Dreams / February 5th
While President Donald Trump continues to falsely claim that the US economy is the hottest in the world, new data released Thursday shows that announced layoffs in January hit a high not seen since the Great Recession of 2009.
The new report by corporate outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas shows that that US employers announced more than 108,000 job cuts last month, more than double the nearly 50,000 job cuts that they announced one year before.
In fact, the announced job cuts were higher than any January since 2009, when the economy was in the middle of a global financial crisis.
Andy Challenger, chief revenue officer for Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said that the January 2026 job cuts were “a high number” and a signal that “employers are less-than-optimistic about the outlook for 2026.”
| | WEEKLY DERAILMENT DEPARTMENT | | Each Tuesday in this news bulletin, RWU does our best to present a picture of what has been happening over the course of the previous week in terms of derailments in North America, and investigation determinations of previous accidents. NOTE: This list is by no means comprehensive. Smaller and less consequential mishaps are generally not reported here. If the wreck results in injury or fatality, or is especially damaging/extreme, a full article will appear as a feature in the dozen or so rail articles above. Know of a train wreck? Please feel free to forward a link to raillabornews@gmail.com for possible inclusion next week. Thanks! |
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