TTD in the news

Reported by Dan Zukowski for SmartCitiesDive. As Congress stumbles toward a likely government shutdown at midnight on Oct. 1, state and local officials, including those responsible for law enforcement and transportation, are assessing how a shutdown would affect their operations. Depending on the length of any shutdown and the specific federal personnel and agencies it…

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Reported by Irving Mejia-Hilario for the Dallas Morning News. Over 7,000 union workers in Illinois and Michigan joined other striking auto workers Friday as the United Auto Workers widened its work stoppage to win higher wages and benefits from Detroit’s Big Three automakers. UAW President Shawn Fain called on workers at a Ford assembly plant…

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Reported by Joanna Marsh for Freightwaves. On the surface, a government shutdown — which can occur if Congress can’t agree on how to handle the appropriations budgets — would have a limited impact on freight rail operations. Freight railroads will keep running, transporting parts, materials and goods within North America and to and from the…

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The major freight railroads say a disagreement over whether they will be allowed to discipline some workers who use a government hotline to report safety concerns has kept them from following through on the promise they made back in March to join the program after a fiery Ohio derailment prompted calls for reforms. Unions and…

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Reported by Nick Niedzwiadek and Olivia Olander for Politico Pro. President Joe Biden has tapped former union leader Brendan Danaher to serve as a top labor adviser at the White House. Danaher fills the role — deputy director of the National Economic Council for labor and economy — left by Celeste Drake, who stepped down…

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Reported by Benjamin Kail for Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. U.S. Sens. Bob Casey and John Fetterman are pressing Norfolk Southern to join a federal rail safety program that the company said it would join more than four months ago, after one of its freight trains derailed in East Palestine, Ohio in February. The Federal Railroad Administration’s Confidential…

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Reported by Vegas Business Digest. Yesterday, U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV) held a press conference to call on the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) to fund Nevada’s application, seeking $3.75 billion in federal funding to construct the Brightline West’s 218-mile high-speed rail project. The project will connect Nevada and Southern California through planned stations in…

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Reported by Brett Wilkins for Common Dreams. Democratic U.S. Sens. Bob Casey and John Fetterman of Pennsylvania on Friday urged the CEO of Norfolk Southern to follow through on a promise to take part in a “near-miss” reporting system more than six months after one of the company’s freight trains carrying hazardous materials derailed and burned in…

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Reported by Progressive Railroading. The Transportation Trades Department (TTD) of the AFL-CIO has urged the CEOs of six major freight railroads operating in the United States to formally join the federal Confidential Close Call Reporting System. The system enables rail workers to confidentially report “close call” safety incidents to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) without…

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A rail union group wants to know why the Class I railroads haven’t yet adopted a federal program in which railroad employees may anonymously report safety-related incidents. The Transportation Trades Department (TTD) with the AFL-CIO sent letters to each of the six Class I railroads asking why they haven’t yet signed on to the Federal…

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