TTD in the news

America’s Workforce Podcast.

Greg Regan, President of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO joined the America’s Work Force Union and provided updates following the Feb. 3 Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. He also discussed the impact the derailment is having on the entire rail industry and problems with the Federal Aviation Administration that currently does not have a leader.

As more federal hearings and meetings take place regarding the East Palestine derailment, Regan feels it has become clear that the rail agencies are not as transparent as they claim. Many local residents and the union members who were charged with the cleanup task following the derailment have become sick. Unfortunately, there are no explanations for the symptoms these men and women have developed. Adding to the mystery, Regan said there are no examples of how this disaster will affect the area in the long term.

Reported by Alex Daugherty for Politico.

The collapse of President Joe Biden’s effort to fill the top job at the Federal Aviation Administration leaves the administration starting from scratch with an agency that has lacked a Senate-confirmed leader for nearly a year.

But a Republican lawmaker who helped sink Biden’s nominee says the president has an obvious solution — hand the job to the acting chief who has been running the agency since April.

Acting Administrator Billy Nolen, a former airline pilot who led the FAA’s safety office, has already gotten a public endorsement from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who predicted during a hearing this month that he would “get confirmed quickly.” Some people in the aviation industry have also called Nolen an obvious choice, given his experience as a pilot and safety executive and his pledges to address a recent spike in near-collisions among planes.

Reported by Dan Zukowski for SmartCitiesDive.

To encourage the development of high-speed rail systems, the Federal Railroad Administration wants to establish a “streamlined process” for federal reviews of grant funding applications, according to a notice posted Wednesday in the Federal Register.

The Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail Grant Program is making $4.6 billion available for projects outside the Northeast Corridor, including but not limited to high-speed rail. Applications are due April 21. The FRA is inviting project developers to submit their domestic sourcing and workforce plans now, instead of during the grant application and funding process.

Reported by Sarah Zimmerman for SmartCitiesDive.

At an investor’s conference last December, Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw made a somewhat surprising announcement for the rail industry: The company would look beyond short-term profits to rebuild service and invest in customer relations.

Following nearly three years of declining service and contentious negotiations with labor that nearly boiled over into a nationwide strike, railroads have been working to remake their image in the public and private sphere. Shortly after Norfolk Southern’s investor day, other major railroads including CSX and BNSF made similar promises to invest in infrastructure and workers.

Those announcements, however, were quickly overshadowed in early February when a Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous materials derailed in East Palestine, Ohio. While no injuries or deaths have been associated with the incident so far, half of the town’s roughly 5,000 residents were forced to evacuate so officials could release and burn toxic vinyl chemicals as a safety precaution.

Reported by Joanna Marsh for Freightwaves.

Two congressional representatives from Ohio have introduced their own rail safety bill that excludes a train crew size requirement.

The bill, Reducing Accidents in Locomotives Act, or RAIL Act, calls for the promulgation of new rules that are based off of the findings of the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation of the Feb. 3 derailment of a Norfolk Southern (NYSE: NSC) train. The bill also calls for railroad companies to provide advanced notice to state emergency response commissioners of trains carrying hazardous materials.

Reported by Alex Daugherty for Politico Pro.

The majority of House members from Ohio on Friday introduced a bill that aims to improve rail safety in the wake of last month’s derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, including provisions related to notification, first responders, rail inspections and more.

The bill is being led by Democratic Rep. Emilia Sykes and Republican Rep. Bill Johnson, whose district includes East Palestine, and has the support of Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.), the ranking member on the House Transportation Committee, who on Friday said he looks “forward to advancing this proposal and others designed to protect communities, strengthen rail safety, and hold operators accountable.”

A Norfolk Southern worker is dead after being struck by a dump truck Tuesday morning at a railroad crossing at a Cleveland steel plant.

Norfolk Southern says conductor Louis Shuster was killed on the Cleveland-Cliffs Cleveland Works property in Cleveland.

The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office says Shuster, 46, was from Broadview Heights.

The National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday it is opening a “special investigation” into Norfolk Southern’s safety culture, pointing to five serious incidents involving the railroad — including last month’s derailment and chemical spill in East Palestine, Ohio.

“The continued safe operations of Norfolk Southern is vital to the United States,” the board said in a statement. “The NTSB is concerned that several organizational factors may be involved in the accidents, including safety culture.”

All seven Class I railroads have signed on to a voluntary program established by the Federal Railroad Administration that enables workers to anonymously share situations in which there might be operational hazards.

Federal officials had renewed their calls for the Class I railroads to take part in the close call reporting system (C3RS) following the Feb. 3 derailment of a Norfolk Southern train in East Palestine, Ohio. The Transportation Trade Department of the AFL-CIO had also pressed federal officials to urge the Class I railroads to participate in the program.

Railroad workers have been sounding the alarm for years over railway safety concerns, and a string of recent train derailments have brought these issues into the spotlight.

Greg Regan, the president of the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department, said he has raised safety concerns in front of Congress multiple times in the past, saying it’s not that train accidents are up in the last few months, but they’ve been up over the last 10 years.