Weekly Digest Number 1 - January 2nd, 2024

Editor's Note: This is BIG news for Amtrak employees and passengers! Finally after kicking the can down the road for well over a decade, Amtrak appears to be moving towards procurement of the next generation of long distance cars that will enable the national network of long distance trains to continue - and hopefully expand.

Amtrak Reaches Next Major Milestone in Transforming Long Distance Train Service

Amtrak Media

Amtrak is taking a major step towards improving overnight, cross-country train travel by issuing a formal Request for Proposals (RFP) to railcar manufacturers to begin the replacement of Amtrak’s current Long Distance fleet. This once-in-a-generation, multi-billion-dollar procurement will start reequipping a fleet that provides vital train service from coast to coast and is made possible through funding provided by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Congress.

Editor's Note: The sooner some of these projects can come online the better. Once the travelling public has the opportunity to ride trains - as opposed to flying or driving - they will demand more, and we can return to the days when there were fast, frequent trains to just about everywhere.

The Corridor ID program clears the path for a national network of great trains

High Speed Rail Alliance

The $8.2 billion in grants for train projects got most of the spotlight in the recent blockbuster announcement by the Federal Railroad Administration. But the FRA’s new Corridor ID program will be even more pivotal in creating a national network of high-speed trains across the US. The FRA named 69 projects across 44 states for inclusion in Corridor ID’s initial round.

Editor's Note: It appears the Canadians are taking a page out of the playbook of their fellow passenger rail advocates south of the border. Hopefully this legislation - if adopted - will be easier to enforce in Canada than has been the case in the U.S.

Bill introduced in Parliament to give VIA trains right of preference

Trains Magazine / December 18

A member of Canada’s Parliament from British Columbia has introduced a bill to create a right of preference for passenger trains on the nation’s railroads — the lack of which has long hampered VIA Rail Canada operations. “Right now, people are avoiding the train because they can’t get to where they need to go with any sense of consistency,”

Editor's Note: Greyhound is the transportation of last resort for many and cannot be left to profiteers and asset-strippers. A nationalized Greyhound in the manner of - and working with - Amtrak could create a coordinated, extensive, dependable, and affordable alternative to flying and/or driving. And public ownership would make it a lot easier to offer municipal land for stations, and to have public planners included in service decisions. Bus driving could be a career again. Also Amtrak and Greyhound both had package services they recently discontinued which provided a useful alternative to overnight delivery and could be restarted.

Nationalize Greyhound

Ben Burris / Dec 26

A publicly owned intercity bus service with dedicated highway lanes could do for travelers what the US Postal Service does for letters and packages: let them criss-cross the country cheaply and quickly at their own convenience. A full quarter of Greyhound riders have told pollsters that they wouldn’t be able to make some of these trips if the bus wasn’t an option. Right now, that means a lot of people just not having a way to travel.

Editor's Note: Roadway worker protection to enter the 21st century. There are far too many easily avoidable fatalities out on the tracks.

NTSB focuses on worker protections in fatal NYCT accident investigation

Progressive Railroading / Dec 28

The National Transportation Safety Board has issued its preliminary report on a fatal accident involving an MTA New York City Transit subway train and an employee working as a flagger on a track cleaning crew. The accident occurred Nov. 29, when the train struck and killed the employee working on track B2 of the D Line near the 34th Street-Herald Square Station in Manhattan.

Editor's Note: We juxtaposed the next two articles on purpose to show the absurdity of Parallel System's 'tech'. Rail is a brutal environment with relatively inexpensive railcars exposed to weather, poor track, and other dilapidated equipment, and expected to last fifty years. The Class Ones and the major shortline holding companies give Parallel credence out of a fetish to eliminate human workers, not common sense.

Revolutionizing rail: Parallel Systems debuts automated platooning cars

Esther Geerts / Dec 21

Parallel Systems publicly showcased for the first time its platooning operation with autonomous battery-electric rail vehicles on 20 December. Separate Parallel railcars connect with each other through bumper-to-bumper contact and are able to form platoons of up to 50 cars, transporting goods on conventional railway tracks, in a completely different way. The company released video footage of the Parallel vehicles successfully platooning on its Southern California test track. Individually powered Parallel railcars can form platoons of up to 50 cars, improving aerodynamic energy efficiency and using railroad network capacity more effectively, according to the company. Parallel System was founded in 2020 by a group of former SpaceX engineers.

Editor's Note: Another case where a rail car failed and led to a disastrous derailment, not too dissimilar from the East Palestine wreck of last February. Just like with that calamity, the question is raised, why did the railcar fail? And more importantly, why was it not detected?

Structural failure of railcar led to CN derailment in U.S.-Canada tunnel, TSB says

Trains Magazine / Dec 19

A structural failure in a bathtub gondola car led to the June 2019 derailment of a Canadian National train in the tunnel between Sarnia, Ontario, and Port Huron, Mich., the Transportation Safety Board of Canada said in a report released Monday, Dec. 18. A total of 45 cars and a distributed-power locomotive derailed in the June 28, 2019, incident in the Paul M. Tellier Tunnel under the St. Clair River, with one tank car releasing 12,000 gallons of sulphuric acid [see “Cleanup continues after derailment …,” Trains News Wire, June 30, 2019].

Editor's Note: Sad to see the demise of this plant that has been in operation for so many years. Rail parts suppliers - along with every other aspect of rail employment - should be expanding, not contracting.

Wabtec to close Wilmerding plant, lay off 94 workers

Jacob Geanous / Dec 24

Nearly 100 workers will be laid off at Wabtec Corporation after the company announced the closure of its plant on Air Brake Avenue in Wilmerding. Wabtec, based on the North Shore, traces its roots to 1869 and Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp. 

NEWS FROM AROUND THE LABOR MOVEMENT

Editor's Note: Senator Sanders - the only Senator who had our backs during the rail labor uprisin last year - has also championed the struggles of workers in auto, healthcare, education, warehouse and others. When he says that his "hero" is the trade union movement, he is speaking of the working people of this country, those who do the grunt work and make society function.

My hero of 2023 is the trade union movement

Bernie Sanders

The year 2023 will go down as one of the most difficult not only in the modern history of America, but in the modern history of the world. In virtually every sector of society, the state of our nation and the world is in crisis—from climate change, to devastating wars, to our dysfunctional health care system, and to our failure to meet the child-care, educational and retirement needs of our people, the list of issues to be worried about seems endless.