August 30, 2024 | FRA, News, Positive Train Control, Top News
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) sided with the BLET on August 26 when it denied a joint waiver request by five railroads seeking to change operating rules in the event of unplanned Positive Train Control (PTC) outages. The BLET filed formal written comments...
August 28, 2024 | BNSF, C3RS, FRA, Headlines, Railroad Safety
(Source: Associated Press, August 28, 2024) Freight railroad BNSF is generally striving to improve safety on a consistent basis, but that message doesn’t always reach front-line workers who often don’t feel comfortable reporting safety concerns for fear of being...
July 31, 2024 | FRA, Headlines, UP
(Source: Reuters, July 26, 2024) U.S. railroad Union Pacific interfered in a federal safety audit after employees were coached how to respond, prompting the federal rail agency to end the review, the agency and the chair of the Senate Commerce Committee said on...
July 24, 2024 | East Palestine-NS, FRA, Headlines, Legislation, NTSB, Railroad Safety
(Source: Associated Press, July 23, 2024) Major freight railroads are rushing railcar inspections, reinforcing known safety concerns raised by unions for years, but at a House hearing Tuesday they’ll present new evidence from federal inspectors that railcar checks are...
July 17, 2024 | East Palestine-NS, FRA, Headlines, Railroad Safety
(Source: Trains.com, July 16, 2024) The Federal Railroad Administration has updated its 2023 safety advisory that encourages railroads to make better use of data from wayside hot-bearing detectors. The second supplement to the advisory, issued in draft form on Friday,...
July 10, 2024 | FRA, News, Top News, Train Length
A recent article published at Jacobin.com examines how the railroad industry has continued to aggressively lobby against federal safety regulations since the 2023 East Palestine disaster, even as new data suggests that increases in train length have made derailments...
July 2, 2024 | Amtrak, FRA, News, Technology
The BLET opposes the installation of shunt enhancer antennas on Amtrak’s fleet of Siemens Charger locomotives. Photo by David Estes ____________________ The BLET has filed written comments with the Federal Railroad Administration to oppose Amtrak’s request for a...
June 11, 2024 | FRA, News, Remote Control
From left: BLET President Eddie Hall, FRA Administrator Amit Bose, First VP Mark Wallace and National S-T David Estes ____________________ FRA Administrator Amit Bose revealed during his speech at the BLET Western Regional Meeting in Kansas City that the FRA will soon...
May 30, 2024 | FRA, Headlines, Railroad Safety, Train Length
(Source: Trains.com, May 29, 2024) The risk of derailment increases with freight train length, according to an academic study published today, which found that a 200-car train is 24% more likely to derail than a 50-car train. The study — by researchers from Brigham...
