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Amtrak is asking Congress for a smaller operating subsidy in fiscal 2014, citing better cost-sharing arrangements with states and smaller losses on unprofitable routes. The passenger rail line said it is requesting $373 million in operating support for the year beginning in October, down from the $443 million Amtrak is receiving in the current fiscal
Read moreThe Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration said March 12 that it has ordered the Union Pacific Railroad Co. to reinstate an employee who was fired for reporting a work-related injury and to pay the worker $350,000 in back pay and damages. According to an OSHA statement, the worker charged that Union Pacific fired
Read moreIn 1985, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) implemented a post-accident toxicological testing program to test railroad employees who had been involved in serious train accidents for alcohol and certain controlled substances (marijuana, cocaine, phencyclidine (PCP), and selected opiates, amphetamines, barbiturates, and benzodiazepines). This addition to the final rule adds certain non-controlled substances with potentially impairing
Read moreNorfolk Southern Railway Co. has been ordered to pay more than $1.1 million in compensatory and punitive damages following a pair of whistleblower complaints alleging that the freight rail company illegally fired three workers who complained about safety issues, the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced Feb. 28. OSHA said it found violations
Read moreIn the February edition of the National Association of Railroad Passengers (NARP) News:• New Cost-Sharing Framework for Amtrak routes • LaHood Touts Passenger Trains in Exit Interviews with media• NARP’s Spring Council of Representatives meeting in April• Amtrak, California HSR Authority May Jointly Order High-Speed Trainsets• Northeast Corridor Commission issues first report – Critical Needs•
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