(Source: Washington Post)

Metro knocked down one of the bigger barriers to competition in the D.C. area’s wireless-phone market Friday afternoon by announcing thatall four nationwide wireless carriers would offer service in its subway stations and tunnels.

The  Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s press release led off with words that many Metro riders have been waiting for years to read: “Metro riders will be able to call home from any cell phone.”

Today, the only signal to reach Metro’s underground stretches comes from Verizon Wireless; Sprint users can roam on that signal, but AT&T Wireless and T-Mobile subscribers are out of luck. It’s an awkward little detail that I’ve had make part of my standard guidance to people shopping for wireless-phone service.

That Friday-afternoon release went on to explain that Metro’s board approved an agreement with AT&T Wireless, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon to “build a new wireless infrastructure in the underground rail system during the next four years.” The first results will appear pretty soon:

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source:  New York Times)

Kansas will widen U.S. Route 69 to remove a bottleneck outside Kansas City, along with three other expensive projects. Maryland will spend its money in smaller pieces, resurfacing dozens of rutted roads and highways. Colorado will build an interchange on Elk Creek Road in Jefferson County, complete with an underpass for the elk.

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source:  Whitehouse.gov via Planetizen)

Just two weeks after signing that legislation, we’re about to start the biggest investment on our nation’s road, bridges, highways and tunnels since we built the Interstate Highway System over 50 years ago.  It’s a big deal.  The work is beginning now, with hundreds more projects getting underway in the next few months.  Some project will start this month, some won’t get going until the summer.  We’re going to do everything we can to get them moving as quickly as possible.  But Americans didn’t get in this mess overnight.  And unfortunately, unfortunately, it’s going to take some time for us to get out of this.

     Mr. President, you also made it clear that we have an obligation to the taxpayers of this nation to make sure their money is being used wisely, to make it accountable and transparent.  Folks, we’re going to ask of you a sense of diligence and transparency and responsibility as has not been asked before, because we’ve never made this kind of investment before.  This is a big deal.  Never before in the history of this country have the people been more able to see with such complete transparency how we’re going to put their money to work, not just in this agency but particularly here. 

Excerpts from President Obama’s address:

     Of the 3.5 million jobs that will be created and saved over the next two years as a result of this recovery plan, 400,000 will be jobs rebuilding our crumbling roads, bridges, and schools, repairing our faulty levees and dams, connecting nearly every American to broadband, and upgrading the buses and trains that commuters take every day.  Many of these projects will be coordinated by Secretary LaHood and all of you at the Department of Transportation.  And I want you to know that the American public is grateful to public servants like you — men and women whose work isn’t always recognized, but whose jobs are critical to our nation’s safety, security, and prosperity.  You have never been more important than you are right now, and for that we are all grateful.  (Applause.) 

     Now, in the coming days and weeks, my administration will be announcing more details about the kinds of transportation projects that will be launched as part of the recovery plan.  But today, I want to speak about an investment we are making in one part of our infrastructure.  Through the Recovery Act, we will be investing $28 billion in our highways, money that every one of our 50 states can start using immediately to put people back to work.  It’s an investment being made at an unprecedented pace, thanks in large part to Joe Biden, who’s leading the effort to get the money out the door quickly.  Because of Joe, and because of all the governors and mayors, county and city officials who are helping implement this plan, I can say that 14 days after I signed our Recovery Act into law, we are seeing shovels hit the ground.

 

The U.S. Department of Transportation today awarded the United We Ride/Mobility for All Americans joint demonstration grants to the following recipients:

1.  Lower Savannah Council of Governments – $680,000 grant to provide enhanced, cost-effective transportation choices for older adults, people with disabilities and low-income populations in Aiken, SC.   The Lower Savannah Council of Governments is using the funding for planning and designing an expanded human service transportation network to include more human service transportation providers and vehicle tracking abilities such as global positioning systems (GPS) and to enable customers to receive information and manage their own trips through a toll-free number and web-based applications.

2.  Camden County Workforce Investment Board – $700,000 grant to provide enhanced, cost-effective transportation choices for older adults, people with disabilities and low-income populations in Camden County, NJ.   The Camden County Workforce Investment Board is using the funding for planning and designing a transportation brokerage system supported by a comprehensive set of transportation modes, and for promoting fixed-route public transportation usage for human service clients through accessibility improvement.

3.  Paducah Area Transit System – $1.4 million grant to provide enhanced, cost-effective transportation choices for older adults, people with disabilities and low-income populations in Paducah, KY.   The Paducah Area Transit System is using the funding for the expansion of an existing call center to cover a larger geographic area and provide around-the-clock access to traveler support.  The strengthened call center will add customer-oriented features, such as automated telephone and Internet-based trip reservations and management.

The United We Ride/Mobility for All Americans joint demonstration adopts a two-phased approach.  Eight sites were selected to in 2007 participate in Phase 1, which is system planning and design.  These three Phase 1 sites are selected to move forward to system deployment, the second phase of the program. 

Funding for the demonstration is provided by the Intelligent Transportation System Joint Program Office of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration in Partnership with the Federal Transit Administration

(Source: Living on Earth)

Ridership on the nation’s mass transit systems; subways, buses and light rails, is at an all time high. But while the mass is up – transit, the number of stops and services is dropping dramatically, even while ticket prices are taking a hike. The federal stimulus package will infuse a massive 16 billion dollars into public transit, half of that for high speed rails.

And William Millar, President of the American Public Transportation Association says, the money is arriving right on time.

MILLAR: Well we like to say it’s the best of times and worst of times, as that famous writer once said. In – since that – in 2007 we had reached a modern high of about 10.3 billion times that year Americans used public transit, only to be eclipsed in 2008. Looks like there’ll be at least five percent higher than that . 

Eleven federally designated high-speed rail corridors have been in the works for years, but funding for the projects was not available until now. (Courtesy of the U.S. House of Representatives)

MILLAR: In most cases the revenue is not able to keep up with the cost. While people think of paying their fare let’s say when they get on the subway line, that fare is designed to only cover perhaps a third, maybe half the cost of the system. The rest comes from a combination of federal, state and local funds, and those funds come from the very sources that we’re seeing the down turn in the economy. So, sales taxes is a frequent way that it happens or property taxes, and, of course, property values are falling throughout the country. Sometimes gasoline taxes, but, of course, we’re using less gasoline than we did. So at the very time we ought to be increasing our public transit use to meet the new demand, we’re finding that many transit systems around the country are having to cut back, having to raise fares, because, of course, we have to balance our budgets just like everyone e/lse does.

(Source: Seattle Post Intelligencer)

(Source: Transportion for America)

The Monterey-Salinas Transit System in California is one of the 80 systems chronicled on our map facing job cuts, service cuts, or fare increases. Photo submitted by Danny Avina and the MST.

Here at Transportation for America, we’ve spent a lot of time documenting examples across the country of transit agencies cutting service, raising fares, or laying off workers to cope with slashed budgets and growing deficits. In nearly every instance we’ve found, there’s a similar pattern — declining state and federal aid, paired with decreasing revenue, pushes a local transit agency to make cuts, even while ridership remains at all time highs as residents look for cleaner or more affordable ways to get to work or go to the store.

Unfortunately, we’ve hit a grim new milestone in our search for transit cuts. Transportation for America has now documented 80 communities across the United States (even stretching up to Alaska) being hit by these service reduction, fare increases, and layoffs. You can look at all the cuts we’ve found on our transit cuts page. (Continue to let us know if we’re missing any.)

Click here to read the entire article.

(via Editorial – A Smart Way to Help Commuters – NYTimes.com)

It’s been clear for months that only Albany could really rescue New York City commuters from the drastic service cuts and major increases in tolls and fares threatened by the deficit-ridden Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

That seemed a hopeless prospect — until this week, when Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Albany’s most powerful Democrat, announced a compromise plan that could help both the authority and its riders. What is even more encouraging, Mr. Silver is probably the only one in Albany with enough clout to sell such a compromise.

The Silver plan is adapted in part from an excellent proposal outlined last year by Richard Ravitch, the authority’s former chairman. Mr. Ravitch and a commission established to find new ways to finance mass transit proposed two changes: a modest payroll tax for employers in a 12-county area and new tolls on bridges to Manhattan along the Harlem and East Rivers.

Click here to read the entire article.

The Transportation Department also received $48.1 billion in the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act for shovel-ready infrastructure construction projects.

The proposed 2010 budget includes a five-year, $5 billion state grant program for high-speed rail projects, which is above $8 billion set aside for high-speed rail projects in the stimulus package.

(Source: Creamer Media’s Engineering News)

All of Durban’s public transport projects, which are being funded by the national government to the tune of R1,2-billion, will be completed by the first quarter of 2010,Carlos Esteves, deputy head of the Road System Management for eThekwini, said ast week. 

The city aims to promote public transport over private transport to make the city more accessible and to ease movement around the city centre for commuters and pedestrians. 

Projects on target for 2010 include additional dedicated public transport lanes, an inner city distribution system, park and ride facilities using existing car parks and buses, upgrades to major intersections, a freeway management system, a closed-circuit television road monitoring system and a traffic call centre. 

Durban’s King Shaka International Airport is expected to start operating in May 2010, just in time for the FIFA World Cup, and a shuttle service will be provided for passengers between the airport and a central transport hub in the city.