Railway Industry
Rail freight rail traffic remains down this week PDF Print E-mail
Written by AAR.org   
Saturday, 01 August 2009 21:27
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Association of American Railroads today reported that rail carloadings for the week ended July 25, 2009 continue to show slight improvement, but rail traffic remains down compared with the same period last year. U.S railroads reported originating 273,943 cars, down 17.4 percent compared with the same week in 2008. Regionally, carloadings were down 15.6 percent in the West and 20 percent in the East.

Intermodal volume of 193,332 trailers or containers was down 17.9 percent from the same week last year. Container volume fell 12.1 percent and trailer volume dropped 39.1 percent. Total volume on U.S. railroads for the week ending July 25 was estimated at 29.3 billion ton-miles, down 16.3 percent from the same week last year.

All 19 carload freight commodity groups were down from last year with declines ranging from 2.9 percent for nonmetallic minerals to 57.9 percent for metallic ores.

For the first 29 weeks of 2009, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 7,610,311 carloads, down 19.1 percent from 2008; 5,376,118 trailers or containers, down 17.2 percent, and total volume of an estimated 809.7 billion ton-miles, down 18.1 percent.
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Buy-outs and Railroad Retirement benefits PDF Print E-mail
Written by U.S. Railroad Retirement Board   
Thursday, 30 July 2009 09:34
CHICAGO — Railroad employees frequently ask the Railroad Retirement Board how the acceptance of a buy-out from a railroad employer affects their future eligibility for benefits under the Railroad Retirement and Railroad Unemployment Insurance Acts. The following questions and answers provide information on this subject.

1. Would leaving railroad work and accepting a buy-out mean that an employee forfeits any future entitlement to an annuity under the Railroad Retirement Act?

As long as an employee has acquired at least 120 months (10 years) of creditable rail service or 60 months (5 years) of creditable service if such service was performed after 1995, he or she would still be eligible for a regular railroad retirement annuity upon reaching retirement age, or, if totally and permanently disabled, for an annuity before retirement age, regardless of whether or not a buy-out was ever accepted.

However, if a person permanently leaves railroad employment before attaining retirement age, the employee may not be able to meet the requirements for certain other benefits, particularly the current connection requirement for annuities based on occupational, rather than total, disability and for supplemental annuities paid by the Board to career employees.
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