TTD in the news

Reported by John Oliver for HBO.

John Oliver discusses freight trains and railroads, how they’ve put profits over safety, and, crucially, what shows he watched as a child that explain…everything.

Reported by David Lassen for Trains.

President Joe Biden and passenger rail advocates on Friday hailed announcement of two major Federal Railroad Administration programs — one providing $8.2 billion in grants for construction of passenger-focused projects [see “FRA announces $8.2 billion in Federal-State Partnership passenger grants,” Trains News Wire, Dec. 8, 2023] and the other announcing routes selected for further passenger development, either as new or extended routes, or with increased frequencies [see “Full list of passenger routes …,” News Wire, Dec. 8, 2023].

Biden highlighted the $6.1 billion for the Brightline West and California high speed projects included in the Federal-State Partnership funding during an appearance Friday in Las Vegas, Nev., saying “world-class high speed rail” had been one of his commitments as a presidential candidate. “Today I’m here to deliver on that vision,” he said. “You have no idea how much this pleases me.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Representatives Zach Nunn (IA-03) and Don Davis (NC-01) today introduced legislation to protect Iowa’s jobs in the face of increasing automation in the workforce. The bipartisan Workforce DATA Act requires the U.S. Department of Labor to develop a plan to ensure that automation is a tool to make work easier, not an excuse to eliminate jobs. […]

Reported by Joanna Marsh for Freightwaves.

Prospects for rail safety legislation in Congress to move forward in the waning weeks of 2023 appear dim, given other pressing national issues and even “mental exhaustion” among politicians, according to a former U.S. Department of Transportation official who now heads a consulting firm.

“I think the bottom line is that it’s probably unlikely at this point that we’re gonna see any legislation this year. And next year — being an election year — is also looking pretty grim as far as prospects for the bill,” said Loren A. Smith Jr., president of Skyline Policy Risk Group, a research and consulting firm focused on the supply chain. Smith previously served as deputy assistant secretary for policy at DOT.

President of the Transportation Trades Department, Greg Regan, joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast to discuss the ongoing battle for rail safety improvements, safety legislation and a high-speed rail system working with unions in California.

Rail safety is still a major concern for the TTD. Despite the best efforts of the administration and Railroad Safety Administration, until there can be actual legislation passed, Regan doesn’t believe changes will be made. The Rail Safety Act, is currently in the U.S. Senate, and is about two or three members shy of having the support needed to pass. Until the industry can put safety ahead of profits, the needed changes to make railroads safer won’t happen, he said.

Reported by Mark Gruenberg for People’s World.

A major investigation by the news site ProPublica has—by sifting through thousands of documents, poring over 111 court cases over 15 years about safety issues, and interviewing hundreds of rail workers willing to talk—revealed in detail how the nation’s major freight railroads have put profits before safety, putting workers and communities at risk.

The findings track what the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department has said for years. Its president, Greg Regan, has raised the rail safety issue and lobbied and testified often before federal officials and Congress about the safety hazards on the nation’s Class I big freight railroads.

Reported by Mark Gruenberg for People’s World.

Labor’s renewed activism and unionizing nationally not only wins battles for workers but also combats corporate greed and increasing income inequality, Teamsters President Sean O’Brien, Auto Workers President Shawn Fain, and Association of Flight Attendants-CWA President Sara Nelson told senators in mid-November.

Fain summed up the progress by declaring, “In the past six months, we have begun to turn the tide in that class war—for the American worker.”

Reported by Chris Isidore for CNN. Nearly 900,000 Americans sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner this week will have unions – and the double-digit pay increases they won – to thank. That’s how many unionized workers have won immediate pay hikes of 10% or more in just the last year, according to an analysis by CNN. […]

Reported by Progressive Railroading.

The California High-Speed Rail Authority and 13 rail labor unions last week announced they’ve entered into an agreement in which the authority will use rail workers covered by federal rail labor laws in critical jobs once the high-speed trains begin to operate.

The memorandum of understanding (MOU) ensures that “highly skilled rail workers will perform traditional railroad work such as operating trains, engineering work, maintenance of equipment, dispatching, on-board service and clerical work, according to a press release issued by the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO.

The Surface Transportation Board recently closed the comment period for rail stakeholders to file their thoughts on whether reciprocal switching should be considered as an option to address subpar rail service in the U.S.

And among the thousands of pages in filings to the board about the issue were dozens of suggestions and questions. How can regulators create a formula that can recognize when subpar rail service has occurred but can also account for unusual circumstances such as flooding? Should reciprocal switching be an option provided to all shippers, including those that ship commodities that have historically been exempt from regulations, such as crushed stone or scrap metal? And how could reciprocal switching affect collective bargaining agreements?

STB will be mulling over these questions over the next several weeks. Meanwhile, stakeholders’ responses to the filings will be due Dec. 6.