TTD in the news

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…

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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…

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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…

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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.…

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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.

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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…

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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…

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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…

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Reported by Timothy Noah for The New Republic. On February 3, a Norfolk Southern freight train derailed near East Palestine, Ohio, a small town (pop. 4,800) situated on the Pennsylvania border 20 miles south of Youngstown. The derailment spewed vinyl chloride and other toxic chemicals into the air, killing fish in nearby streams and prompting…

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Reported by Christopher Wilson and Caitlin Dickson for Yahoo News. The fallout continues from the derailment of a train carrying toxic chemicals near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border earlier this month, as local residents file lawsuits and some cast doubt on official assurances about air and water quality. The derailment and evacuation On Feb. 3, 50 train…

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