Railroads

After spending the week leading up to sequestration debating the impact of budget cuts on commercial aviation, lawmakers will turn their transportation focus this week to rail funding.

The House panel that handles railroads will hold a hearing Tuesday about the "role of freight and passenger rail in America's transportation system."

The hearing, which will chaired by Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.), comes as the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is gearing up for authorizing a new funding bill for rail programs this year. 

The unions for Transportation Security Administration (TSA) airport security screeners and Amtrak concession workers have joined the AFL-CIO's Transportation Trades Department, the labor groups said Thursday.

The TTD, which bills itself as the largest coalition of transportation unions, said the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and UNITE HERE unions would become its 32nd and 33rd members.

The AFGE, which represents TSA workers, is joining the TTD for the first time. UNITE HERE, the Amtrak concession workers union, is rejoining the coalition.  

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Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) urged President Obama on Monday to take steps to stop monopolies in the freight rail industry.

“Farmers and businesses across Minnesota rely on freight rail to ship out their products, but a lack of competition in the rail industry harms shippers and drives up prices for their consumers,” Franken said Monday. “The freight rail monopolies that control much of our shipping infrastructure have harmed job creation and economic growth all over Minnesota and all over the country.”

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Former House Transportation Committee Chairman Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) is aiming at of his favorite targets when he led the panel, Amtrak, with legislation to end its "monopoly" on rail service. 

Mica, who has remained a member of the Transportation Committee after passing its gavel to Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.), said his legislation would open Amtrak routes in its profitable northeast corridor up to private sector rail companies.

The legislation mirrors a 2011 House Republican effort to privatize Amtrak service in the Northeast that was unsuccessful when moderate suburban Republicans joined Democrats on the transportation panel in opposition to eliminating the rail company's federal funding. 

Mica vowed Tuesday to press ahead with his rail privatization plan anyway, however.

Lawmakers on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will engage in an age-old debate this week: What role should the federal government have in transportation spending?

The committee's first full hearing under its new chairman, Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.), will be an examination of the "federal role in America's infrastructure."

The Pennsylvania lawmaker is a second-generation Transportation Committee chairman: his father, former Rep. Bud Shuster (R-Pa.), chaired the same body from 1995 until 2001.

The younger Shuster has indicated he will use the Wednesday hearing to try to convince staunch conservative members of his party to exempt transportation from their proposals to scale back spending.

“Transportation and infrastructure have long been recognized as federal responsibilities shared with the states," Shuster said in a statement. 

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National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chairwoman Deborah Hersman has been called a “good pick” for Transportation Secretary by a Washington, D.C., newspaper.

Japan’s All Nippon Airways has said that the grounding of Boeing’s 787 “Dreamliner” airplane has affected 100,000 passengers.

The proposed merger between American and U.S. Airlines is said to once again be close to being announced.

New York City is planning three new underground rail projects. 

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Major League Baseball player Sergio Romo is not being charged for a New Year's Day run-in with Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officials at Las Vegas' McCarran International Airport.

Airline mergers do not appear to have drastically changed the way the industry operates, according to at least one report.

An Amtrak train derailed over the weekend in Los Angeles, but it was not carrying any passengers.

State lawmakers in Virginia are beginning to debate Gov. Bob McDonnell's (R) plan to eliminate its gas tax.