Rail

Did you miss TTD’s president, Ed Wytkind, on the Rick Smith Show last week? If so, never fear: we’ve got the interview here on our blog. Tune in to hear Ed discuss where the billions of dollars we spend replacing our aging railcars and buses ends up, and how TTD, along with the Jobs to […]

TTD’s rail safety agenda got a boost last week when Senator Richard Blumenthal, along with three other Senators, included several reforms that rail labor has long championed in their Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2014. Some 130,000 miles of freight rail tracks crisscross the United States, driving the economy, supporting more than 175,000 employees, and […]

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Edward Wytkind, president of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), issued the following statement today about the consideration of the Passenger Rail Reform and Investment Act of 2014 (PRRIA) by the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee: “Today’s approval by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee of the Passenger Rail Reform and Investment Act of 2014 […]

On behalf of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), I urge your support for the Passenger Rail Reform and Investment Act of 2014 (PRRIA) when it is considered by the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee later this week. This important legislation funds and sustains a key component of our national transportation system, and we commend Chairman Shuster, Ranking Member Rahall, Subcommittee Chairman Denham and Subcommittee Ranking Member Brown for their leadership in crafting this bipartisan, compromise legislation.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Edward Wytkind, president of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), issued the following statement today in response to the introduction of the Passenger Rail Reform and Investment Act of 2014 (PRRIA) by Representatives Bill Shuster, Nick Rahall, Jeff Denham, and Corrine Brown: “The introduction of the Passenger Rail Reform and Investment Act of 2014 […]

[As published on August 27, 2014 by Linda Kor in Arizona Journal] Concerns over public safety and railroad jobs are prompting members of the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation (SMART) Union to reach out to the public for support for H.R. 3040, also known as the Safe Freight Act. The effort is to ensure that no […]

[As published By John Previsich And Edward Wytkind in Times Union] Amtrak links the Hudson Valley to the rest of North America. From Hudson and Albany, you can take the train to western New York, to New York City and to Canada. And people do just that: Last year, Amtrak’s Empire Service alone brought more than […]

This week marks the one year anniversary of a tragic rail accident – a runaway train carrying 72 cars of crude ran into Lac-Megantic, Quebec killing 47 people and demolishing an entire town.  While millions of carloads and containers traverse the country safely each year, too many accidents have occurred lately both in the freight […]

Fatigue is a reality in the freight rail industry and is clearly a contributing factor in many accidents and incidents. While improvements to hours of service rules have been accomplished in recent years, important reforms for freight operating employees and signal workers must be implemented to combat chronic fatigue that still plagues this industry. Many […]

[As published by Edward Wytkind and John Previsich in the Nov. 24 Altoona Mirror] In the first half of the 20th century, the Pennsylvania Railroad was the most heavily traveled railroad in the United States, and at one point it was the largest publicly traded corporation in the world. Times have changed, but Pennsylvanians, including those […]