Good things are happening! Federal regulators finally take action a year after a major train derailment, Maui fire survivors will get federal aid, Amazon drivers now officially work for Amazon, and a bipartisan bill could reshape corporate mergers.
Getting On The Right Side Of The Tracks
Railway safety regulations are finally getting an update, more than a year after a catastrophic derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. After a long deliberation, federal rail regulators announced on April 2 that all freight and passenger trains on the country’s largest railroads will need to have a minimum of two crew members. Railroad companies have 60 days to comply with the new crew size requirement.
This long-awaited crew size update was a focus of federal regulators after the derailment in East Palestine, which displaced 1,500 residents and released 116,000 gallons of vinyl chloride, a known carcinogen, into the surrounding environment. But even before the accident, requiring minimum crew sizes had been a central focus for railworker unions like the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen.
