217.370.8505 cory@bletislb.org

BNSF to pay $75 million to settle biometric privacy suit

BNSF to pay $75 million to settle biometric privacy suit CHICAGO — BNSF Railway will pay $75 million to settle a biometric privacy lawsuit in which it was originally assessed a $228 million penalty, only to have that award thrown out on appeal, Reuters reports. The...

STB Chair Oberman: NS takeover could be a ‘huge detriment’ to the rail industry

“It’s been a long-term struggle to try to get these railroads to rebuild. It’s a never-ending tension,” said Oberman. “Wall Street will always be there — which is fine, it’s part of our capitalist structure. But the activist investors, such as the ones that have surfaced now at Norfolk Southern, have a very short-term goal and it’s not constructive.”

While such activist investors are free to practice their approach in other industries, the rail industry is different, he said.

“Railroads are a regulated monopoly, and they have a common carrier obligation to the public interest and to the nation’s economy,” said Oberman. “Railroad management and owners are not just free to manipulate the business for short-term gain to drain the resources out of the railroads in the form of enormous stock buybacks and dividends to the determent of the railroads, … labor, and ultimately to the economy and the consumers.”

The Koch Network Is Killing Rail Safety

The Koch Network Is Killing Rail Safety One year after a toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, inspired bipartisan legislation that would have made the nation’s railways safer for everyone, the bill has been all but killed — largely thanks to a familiar...

FRA sets hearing for G&W’s proposed zero-emissions tech test

FRA sets hearing for G&W’s proposed zero-emissions tech test The Federal Railroad Administration will hold a hearing March 12 to receive public input on a petition from two Genesee & Wyoming Inc. subsidiaries to test zero-emission freight-rail...