Month: December 2009

WASHINGTON — U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced the availability of $280 million for urban circulator projects such as streetcars, buses, and bus facilities to support communities, expand business opportunities and improve people’s quality of life while also creating jobs. The money represents the first batch of taxpayers’ money by the Obama Administration for its Livability Initiative, a joint venture of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). “This represents a significant effort to promote livable communities, improve the quality of life for more Americans and create

MONTREAL — The strike by locomotive engineers at CN will end immediately as a result of an agreement to resolve the parties’ contractual disagreements through further negotiations and, if necessary, binding arbitration. The union began its strike Nov. 28. E. Hunter Harrison, president and chief executive officer, said: “CN is pleased that an agreement has been reached to end the strike by the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) immediately and to move forward with a process that gives the parties flexibility to negotiate issues further, but also ensures finality through binding arbitration of issues that remain in dispute. We have

MONTREAL — CN has made a new offer to the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC), hoping the effort will break the impasse and end a strike. CN said it has not seen substantive movement by the union to end the locomotive engineers’ strike that started Nov. 28, 2009. “Unfortunately, the union persists in raising the same issues the parties have negotiated for 14 months,” the railroad said in a statement. In a good faith effort to reach a settlement, CN is offering to: — Agree to binding arbitration on wage and benefit issues — Roll-back the 4,300-mile monthly cap for