Rail Workers Weekly News Digest
Number 11 - June 4th, 2019
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Below is a series of article compiled over the previous week.
They are of interest to railroad workers
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2019-11 Article 1
High Court Rejects Freight Railroads and AAR; Rules in Favor of Amtrak, FRA
The
Supreme Court
today rejected
the Association of American Railroads' petition to hear an appeal of a crucial victory for passenger rail last summer in the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, clearing the way for Amtrak and the Federal Railroad Administration to again work together to set metrics and standards for on-time performance and to defend your right to be on time.
This is terrific news for everyone who relies on trains to get to work, to school, and to visit friends and family. It's even more important for our disabled folks, seniors and veterans for whom trains are a lifeline and late trains are a threat.
After a decade of litigation, briefs, filings, letters, claims and counterclaims, this long-running saga ended with just 22 simple words: "The petition for a writ of certiorari is denied. Justice Kavanaugh took no part in the consideration or decision of this petition."
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2019-11 Article 2
FRA: Railroads made significant PTC progress in Q1
As of March 31,
positive train control
(PTC) systems were in operation on 48,050 of the nearly 58,000 route miles subject to the federal mandate, which is a 3 percent increase from where railroads were in their implementation status as of 2018's end, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) announced yesterday.
In addition, railroads are conducting advanced field testing, known as revenue service demonstration (RSD), on another 341 route miles, FRA officials said in a quarterly report on PTC implementations.
With about 19 months left until the federal government's PTC implementation deadline of Dec. 31, 2020, the FRA is conducting "vigorous regulatory oversight of railroad efforts to meet it," agency officials said in a press release.
Read more ...
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2019-11 Article 3
Freight traffic, total carloads decline
Ed Note: Is this continuing trend the ongoing results of PSR? The beginnings of the next recession? Both??
Despite
last week’s rise
in total carloads, such stats for the week ended May 25 were 259,953 carloads, down 5% compared with the same week in 2018, while U.S. weekly intermodal volume was 268,013 containers and trailers, down 8.3% compared to 2018.
The three carload commodity groups that posted an increase compared with the same week in 2018 were petroleum and petroleum products, up 2,567 carloads, to 13,275; miscellaneous carloads, up 688 carloads, to 10,241; and motor vehicles and parts, up 145 carloads, to 17,042.
Commodity groups that posted decreases compared with the same week in 2018 included coal, down 7,770 carloads, to 76,971; grain, down 3,299 carloads, to 22,495; and metallic ores and metals, down 2,527 carloads, to 23,533.
For the week, total U.S. weekly rail traffic was 527,966 carloads and intermodal units, down 6.7% compared with the same week last year.
Read more ....
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2019-11 Article 4
Railroad Agency Scraps Train Crew Staffing Regulation Proposal
Two-person train crews aren’t necessary for rail safety, the Federal Railroad Administration said in withdrawing a proposed rule that would have regulated staffing.
Regulating train crew staffing isn’t “necessary or appropriate for railroad operations to be conducted safely at this time,” the agency said in withdrawing a March 2016
proposed rule
issued after a pair of 2013 rail accidents in the U.S. and Canada, including one in Quebec that killed 47 people.
The withdrawal will be effective upon the
FRA notice’s
May 29 publication in the Federal Register.
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2019-11 Article 5
Railroad Crews Fear that Trespassers Will Make Them Killers
In March, two Waynesboro men died under the wheels of the same train operated by a Buckingham Branch crew, one in Crozet and the other in Waynesboro. Sebastian Ignacio Herrera, the Crozet casualty, was a VCU graduate and electrical engineer. He was 39.
Buckingham Branch management staff joined Albemarle County police at the scene of Herrera’s death, offering a replacement crew, said Mark Bryant, CEO of the short-run railroad. “Since they were so near their home station of Staunton, the engineer and conductor decided to continue.” Shortly after the two-hour delay in Crozet, the same train hit Taylor Dalton Stevens, 32, who was sitting on the tracks in Waynesboro. “Our management staff were still in the area so they got there quickly,” Bryant said. “This time, the crew did not continue.” The day’s events seem to be a stunning coincidence, and no connection between the two has been discovered, according to both the Waynesboro and Albemarle County police.
Read More ...
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2019-11 Article 6 SOLIDARITY
Tell Volkswagen: It’s time to stop your war on workers!
Working people at the Volkswagen plant in Tennessee have been fighting for years for a union. Nearly every other Volkswagen worker around the globe already has a union. But in Tennessee, management has waged an all-out war to stop these workers—refusing to negotiate, hiring high-priced union-busting lawyers and trying to block a vote.
Read more ...
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2019-11 Article 7
Rail yard worker dies in New Jersey
DURYEA — A rail yard worker died inside a rail car Friday at Coxton Yards.
Germania Hose Co. Fire Chief Joe Korea said the man was working inside a tank car Friday afternoon when he apparently lost consciousness.
By the time rescue crews arrived, co-workers were retrieving the man’s lifeless body from the rail car, Korea said.
Read more ...
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Railroad Workers United
Solidarity -- Unity -- Democracy
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