UTU Local 426 Archived News.
09/24/06
Transportation Planners Looking To Improve Railroad Crossing Safety
SPOKANE, WA -- Every year in this country, more than 3,000 people die in crashes between trains and cars. To underscore that point on Monday two men were killed when their truck slammed into the back of a moving train on the Rathdrum Prairie.
Now there's a plan in the works to prevent accidents like this from happening. The plan is called 'Bridging the Valley' from Spokane to Athol and when its complete motorists may never have to cross train tracks in the area again.
Between Athol and Spokane there are 72 intersections where roads cross train tracks and 'Bridging the Valley' would eliminate those crossings.
"To get this done, where train and cars don't have to interact is really important to all of people," Glenn Miles, manager of the Spokane Transportation Council, said.
Under the plan vehicles at 20 of the 72 crossing would either go under or over train tracks. Union Pacific would relocate its main line near BNSF eliminating the other 52 crossings and reducing the potential for deadly accidents.
"It's not going to completely eliminate it, because there is a lot of train activity that aren't main line [but] it should reduce it significantly," he said.
The crossing at Havana and Broadway will be the first crossing to change. Miles says on average this road is shut down 18 hours a day as trains cross through town. The plan would also eliminate whistle noise, increase train efficiency and no more waiting.
The price tag for the plan would be $16 to $20 Million to change each crossing with a final price tag in the area of $270 Million. - Annie Bishop, KXLY-TV4, Spokane, WA
09/18/06
Local Chairman's meeting was held on
September 18th, Clark Simmons and Neil Bedstead were the officers in
attendance. Scoter Pischel, Bob Johnston, Arnie McDonald and myself
representing the UTU and Rich Mize representing the BLET. Discussion
focused on the upcoming Safety Site Team Marathon. A
Supervisor Observation Checklist was distributed and will be
published as soon as the pdf format is forwarded. In my opinion the
management in place are very open with the Union representation. An
example of this is that they have no objection to publishing the
operations test format. Their doors are open to all of us that have
a question or concern or idea. Take advantage of this policy.
We received a copy of the vacation plan for year 2007, a brief
breakdown. Superintendents Notice to be issued on September 18 on
the Northwest Division and the employees assignment on October 1,
2006 at
0001 will determine which vacation roster they will be assigned to.
Employees will be allowed to begin entering vacation requests
October 16 through November 15.
If all goes well the vacation rosters will be finalized and out on
December 21.
Handling Cars Ahead of Engine will be the focus of the marathons. We
had two engineers with injuries last month on shoving moves.
Movement from X-Board to Pasco pool to X-board Agreement
Jim Larkin
Our Local has voted to buy UTU Tee-shirts from the International for our members. We would like to have a day each month or each week (or any time they come to work) when our members will wear the shirts to show the carrier that we support our Union. Scoter and I would like those members who are willing to participate in this to drop us a note via company mail or and e-mail with their name and Tee-shirt size. One shirt per member only please. We will take orders for the next sixty days for the shirts. The shirts are a dark blue in color with a small UTU logo on the upper chest.
Thanks Dean