The 81st Annual AAAE Conference and Exposition is scheduled for June 14-17, 2009, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  This historic city will be our host for the best airport industry conference around.

The AAAE annual conference always attracts more than 2,500 airport and aviation professionals, including airport executives; airport and aviation suppliers and vendors; airline personnel, and representatives from FAA, TSA and DHS. Four days of discussions revolving around the current state of affairs of the airport industry will be supplemented by an exhibit hall with over 250 vendors ready to assist the industry in meeting its challenges with their products and services.  Don’t miss this once-a-year opportunity to meet with airport colleagues from around the country!

PRE-REGISTRATION DEADLINE

(Source: Streetsblog & Wall Street Journal)

The Obama administration is working on a plan to fill the shortfall in the nation’s highway trust fund by August without adding to the federal deficit, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told Congress yesterday.

The highway trust fund, which relies mostly on gas-tax revenue, will need up to $7 billion in additional money by the end of summer to ensure states continue receiving payments, LaHood told the transportation subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee. The fund also will need up to $10 billion in the 12 months after September to ensure its solvency, LaHood said.

“We believe very strongly that any trust fund fix must be paid for,” LaHood told members of the House Appropriations Committee’s transportation panel. “We also believe that any trust fund fix must be tied to reform of the current highway program to make it more performance-based and accountable, such as improving safety or improving the livability of our communities — two priorities for me.”

The administration’s quest to offset its trust fund fix, which will cost as much as $7 billion, could prove fruitless.  Rep. John Olver (D-MA), chairman of the panel that greeted LaHood today, put it simply when asked if the necessary spending cuts could be found. “That’d be very tough,” he said, noting that his own annual transportation spending is unlikely to become law before the highway trust fund runs out of cash.  Replenishing the trust fund with a cost offset, as LaHood suggests, requires a serious conversation about finding new long-term revenue sources for not just highways but all modes of transportation.

But he said the President Barack Obama administration has ruled out raising the gas tax to provide additional funding, saying an economic recession isn’t the time to make such a move.  “We are not going to raise the gasoline tax. I’ll just say that emphatically,” LaHood said.

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source: Government Accontability Office)

Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

The New Starts program is an important source of new capital investment in mass transportation. As required by the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) must prioritize transit projects for funding by evaluating, rating, and recommending projects on the basis of specific financial commitment and project justification criteria, such as cost-effectiveness, economic development effects, land use, and environmental benefits. To be eligible for federal funding, a project must advance through the different project development phases of the New Starts program, including alternatives analysis, preliminary engineering, and final design. Using the statutorily identified criteria, FTA evaluates projects as a condition for advancement into each project development phase of the program.

This testimony discusses the:

(1) key challenges associated with the New Starts program and

(2) options that could help expedite project development in the New Starts program.

This testimony is based on GAO’s extensive body of work on the New Starts program and ongoing work–as directed by Congress. For this work, GAO reviewed FTA documents and interviewed FTA officials, sponsors of New Starts projects, and representatives from industry associations. The FTA reviewed the information in this testimony and provided technical comments.

Previous GAO work has identified three key challenges associated with the New Starts program. First, frequent changes to the New Starts program have sometimes led to confusion and delays. Numerous changes have been made to the New Starts Program over the last decade, such as revising and adding new evaluation criteria and requiring project sponsors to collect new data and complete new analyses. Although FTA officials told GAO that changes were generally intended to make the process more rigorous, systematic, and transparent, project sponsors said the frequent changes sometimes caused confusion and rework, resulting in delays in advancing projects.

Second, the current New Starts evaluation process measures do not capture all project benefits. For example, FTA’s cost-effectiveness measure does not account for highway travel time savings and may not capture all economic development benefits. FTA officials have acknowledged these limitations, but noted that improvements in local travel models are needed to resolve some of these issues. FTA is also conducting research on ways to improve certain evaluation measures.

Third, striking the appropriate balance between maintaining a robust evaluation and minimizing a complex process is challenging. Experts and some project sponsors GAO spoke with generally support FTA’s quantitatively rigorous process for evaluating proposed transit projects but are concerned that the process has become too burdensome and complex.

In response to such concerns, FTA has tried to simplify the evaluation process in several ways, including hiring a consulting firm to identify opportunities to streamline or simplify the process. As part of ongoing work, GAO has preliminarily identified options to help expedite project development within the New Starts program. These options include tailoring the New Starts evaluation process to risks posed by the projects, using letters of intent more frequently, and applying regulatory and administrative changes only to future projects.

While each option could help expedite project development in the New Starts process, each option has advantages and disadvantages to consider. For example, by signaling early federal support of projects, letters of intent and early systems work agreements could help project sponsors use potentially less costly and time-consuming alternative project delivery methods, such as design-build. However, such early support poses some risk, as projects may stumble in later project development phases. Furthermore, some options, like combining one or more statutorily required project development phases, would require legislative action.

Click here to download the entire report.

(Source:  Office of Planning, Environment and Realty Federal Highway Administration)

Recent Events

House Energy and Commerce Committee Approves HR 2454. On May 21, 2009, after several days of deliberation, the House Energy and Commerce Committee approved HR 2454 “American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009.” This includes a proposal for a cap and trade program and several provisions related to the transportation sector. It includes requirements to establish transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions goals and inclusion of a plan to achieve those goals in some metropolitan long-range transportation plans and transportation improvement programs. The legislation also calls for greenhouse gas emission standards on new vehicles including heavy duty on-road and non-road, marine, locomotive, and aircraft engines. The bill will now be referred to up to eight other House committees with jurisdiction over parts of the proposed legislation. The Senate has indicated it will take up climate legislation as well, but the timeline in the Senate is unclear.

EPA and DOT to Conduct Joint Rulemaking on GHG and CAFE Standards. EPA and DOT/NHTSA filed a joint Notice of Intent in the May 22 Federal Register to propose a coordinated greenhouse gas and fuel economy program. The program would apply to light-duty vehicles (cars, SUVs, minivans, and pickup trucks) for model years 2012-2016. Standards for model years after 2016 would be developed in a future rulemaking. EPA is considering a standard that would ramp down to an average 250 grams/mile CO2 (155 g/km) for model year 2016. Regarding fuel economy, President Obama announced on May 19 that a combined fleet average standard of 35.5 miles per gallon would apply by the 2016 model year. Preliminary analysis indicates that the combined program would lead to a reduction of approximately 890 million metric tons CO2 equivalent emissions and 1.8 billion barrels of oil for the model years covered. The Federal Register Notice is available here: http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/E9-12009.htm. A press release from the White House is available here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/President-Obama-Announces-National-Fuel-Efficiency-Policy/

EPA Announces 2008 Clean Air Excellence Awards. On May 13, EPA announced the recipients of its awards, including several transportation related entries. Stonyfield Farm, the yogurt maker, received an award in the category of Transportation Efficiency Innovations for strategies that led to a net 37 percent reduction of CO2 emissions in one year, despite company growth. For details on all of the 2008 award recipients see:http://www.epa.gov/air/caaac/recipients.html.

Robert Ritter Named FHWA Sustainable Transport and Climate Change Team Leader. Robert Ritter, currently a Team Leader in the FHWA Office of Planning, will be the Team Leader for FHWA’s Sustainable Transport and Climate Change Team beginning late June. Rob has been leading Phase II of the DOT Gulf Coast Study, which will further study the impacts of climate change on transportation infrastructure and operations and develop risk assessment tools. Prior to joining FHWA in 2003, Rob worked for the Eno Transportation Foundation.

State News

New York City Climate Change Risk. The New York City Panel on Climate Change released a report on climate change projections and potential risks to the city’s critical infrastructure. Global climate model projections are provided for temperature, precipitation, sea level rise, and extreme events for the New York City area. The document also includes information on the likelihood of risks associated with these impacts and their potential implications for New York City infrastructure. An appendix includes a breakdown of implications for several infrastructure categories, including transportation. The full report is available here:http://www.nyc.gov/html/om/pdf/2009/NPCC_CRI.pdf

Impacts of Climate Change in Washington State. Two studies were released discussing the impacts of climate change in Washington State. The studies were commissioned by the Washington State Legislature. The Climate Change Impacts Group at the University of Washington studied potential impacts of climate change using global climate models scaled to the Northwest, and the Climate Leadership Initiative at the University of Oregon looked at potential economic costs to Washington’s families, businesses and communities. The studies show that without action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, impacts in the state will be “profound.” For more information and links to the reports, see: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/biblio/0901006.html.

Reminders

DOE Funding Available for Transportation Projects that Conserve Energy. The America Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 appropriated $3.2 billion for The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program. Transportation strategies are eligible for funding. Applications for the funding must come from states, Indian tribes, or local governments. Grant application deadlines are May 26 for states and June 25 for local governments and tribes. For more information, contact Diane Turchetta at 202-493-0158 or Diane.Turchetta@dot.gov, or see: http://www.eecbg.energy.gov.

2009 Transportation, Planning, Land Use and Air Quality Conference to focus on Climate Change. The conference, sponsored by the Transportation Research Board, FHWA, and others, will explore the latest research in the coordination of transportation, land use and air quality with a specific focus on climate change strategies. The conference will be held in Denver, CO July 28 and 29, 2009. For more information, see:http://www.ucs.iastate.edu/mnet/tpluaq/home.html.

If you have any suggestions for inclusion in future issues of Transportation and Climate Change News, or if you would like to receive it directly in the future, please send your suggestions or request to Becky Lupes at Rebecca.Lupes@dot.gov.

(Source: AP, NY Times, The Infrastructurist, The Atlantic)

The U.S. transportation secretary says Spain’s bullet train system is a model to follow as America plans how it will spend its stimulus package. Ray LaHood says the $8 billion allocated for high-speed railways in the United States will improve the country’s infrastructure, spur economic growth and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As part of his visit to Spain, he took a ride on the AVE from Madrid to Zaragosa and then hung around in a railway control center with the transport minister for a while. On Saturday he met with Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the guy who’s has really been the force behind Spain’s recent investment.

When President Obama announced in April his $13 billion plan to propel the United States into the age of high-speed rail, he tipped his hat to the trains that zip between the cities of the Old Continent at up to 217 miles an hour.  Spain opened its first Alta Velocidad Española, or AVE, high-speed train route in 1992, between Madrid and Seville. The network has grown to nearly 2,000 kilometers and stretches from Malaga on the south coast to Barcelona, which is north and east.

Spain, an enthusiastic latecomer to high-speed rail, on Friday will complete a six-day tour of European transit systems that it presented to the American transportation secretary, Ray H. LaHood. Officials say the Spanish experience could hold lessons in what works and what does not.

Supporters say the AVE has begun to transform the country, binding remote and sometimes restive regions to Madrid and leading traditionally homebound Spaniards to move around for work or leisure.

“Spaniards have rediscovered the train,” said Iñaki Barrón de Angoiti, director of high-speed rail at the International Union of Railways in Paris. “The AVE has changed the way people live, the way they do business. Spaniards don’t move around a lot, but the AVE is even changing that.”

Such is the train’s allure that politicians of different stripes have made extravagant promises to lace the country with a sprawling network. Under a plan devised by Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Spain will have 10,000 kilometers (more than 6,200 miles) of high-speed track by 2020.

(Source: The Infrastructurist)

Our friends at The Infrastructurist compiled the national results from that study and compare them with the demographics of transit systems in three U.S. cities: Washington, D.C., Portland, Oregon, and San Francisco (well, the Bay Area). The snapshot offers an intriguing insight into which Americans choose not to drive to work.

If FTA can spend a bunch of money on such a compilation for the entire US,  that would greatly benefit many of our professionals engaged in transportation planning & policy research.  An analysis on the issue of social equity and its underpinning to transportation alternatives would be very helpful to say the least as the country’s demographics has undergone a signficiant shift in the past decade or two.

(Source:  Stateline.org via Planetizen)

States are hoping to use federal stimulus money to add technological advancements to their streets and highways to create “smart” roads.

Not all the highway improvement projects states plan to pay for with federal stimulus money involve widening roads, fixing bridges or repaving highways. Nearly half the states plan to use some of their new funds to pay for high-tech gadgets that will reduce congestion, help the environment and create jobs quickly.

At least 22 states have told the federal government they want to make their roads “smarter” by installing traffic cameras, creating express toll lanes, improving traffic signals and alerting drivers about accidents or delays ahead, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.Such projects are “quick, they can move forward very fast, they create jobs and they’re effective in the short and long term,” said Jaime Rall, an NCSL analyst.States are under the gun to tell the federal government how they plan to use $26.7 billion in federal stimulus money for transportation. They have until June 29 to commit half of that money to specific projects, so states are focusing on projects that can get started quickly.Three-quarters of the money committed by states so far will pave or re-pave roads. Some of the money can go to passenger and freight rail efforts, too.

The Obama administration announced earlier this week that another $1.5 billion in transportation stimulus money can be used for innovative road projects.But included in the mix already are dozens of efforts to use technology to make roads function better. The “smart road” improvements include signals for on-ramps in Colorado, new E-Z Pass toll booths to allow drivers to pay without stopping in Delaware and traffic lights connected to fiber optic cable to reduce bottlenecks in Utah.

Technology improvements, in particular, have a bigger bang for the buck for the economy, the federal government points out, because more of the money goes straight to workers’ salaries. Only 20 percent of material-intense projects such as laying roads or fixing bridges typically goes to payroll, according to a January analysis by the U.S. Department of Transportation. For technology upgrades, about 50 percent goes to paychecks.

(Source:  The Infrastructurist & Asia Times)

The Chinese are at it again.  The Asian juggernaut is rolling ahead with its investment in beefing its modern infrastructure – this time with a massive investment in railways.   With the dedication and determination that has become a hallmark of all things Chinese, be it sports or the development, the country has proved time and again that it is among the best in the world.  Dithering and doing things half-way are not among the national character flaws that might be pinned on the Chinese.  And, perhaps, they’re already at it with this plan to build the world’s largest high-speed rail network. 

China’s rail links totaled 76,600km by end of 2006. But most of them were built at least 30 years ago and some even date back to the early 20th century.   The economic boom of the past two decades has generated soaring demand for rail transportation. In 2006, China’s rail network handled 25% of the world’s cargo and passenger travel, although the country’s railway network only accounts for 6% of the world’s total by mileage. 

In 2006, China’s railway network carried 662.2 billion passenger-kilometers – 2.7 times that of Japan – while it carried 2.87 billion tons of freight, a billion tons more than in the US, and 4.8 times that in India.  To cope with the skyrocketing demand for rail transport, the Chinese government has kept expanding its plans for rail construction. As of March 31, China has committed $259 billion to building its high-speed rail network project, and plans to spend nearly a half trillion dollars more in the next three years, boosting the total investment to $730 billion by 2012.

Of the Chinese investment, at least $1 billion is going to the German conglomerate Seimens for the purchase 100 high speed train sets. They will be, on average, 16 cars–or 1300 feet–in length, capable of carrying 1000 passengers, and capable of traveling 218 mph. Moreover, they will be running on tracks designed to accommodate that speed. Unlike, say, the Acela.  Ultimately, the Chinese government plans to buy 1000 high speed trains to run on a track network of around 25,000 miles. 

A little context here: The US–a country with a per capita GDP about 16 times that of China–has set rail as a national priority and has committed… $13 billion. Or, about 2 percent as much in China. This, of course, is in a place where it costs a hell of a lot more to get anything done.   In the U.S., President Obama’s decision to make high-speed passenger rail service a centerpiece of his transportation agenda is funded in part through the recently passed $787 billion stimulus plan including a total of $8 billion for improvements in the U.S. rail system. The Obama plan also proposes a separate five-year, $5 billion investment in high-speed rail as part of the administration’s suggested fiscal year 2010 budget (FY10 budget outline) to make a down payment on constructing enhanced rail network.

(Source: National Transportation Operations Coalition)

A coalition of transportation and technology leaders – including state and local officials, industry and academic leaders and prominent stakeholder organizations – is calling on Congress to focus federal funding in the surface transportation authorization bill on the deployment of smart technologies and innovative solutions in order to create a performance-driven, intermodal transportation system that is safer, cleaner, more efficient and more financially sustainable for communities, businesses and the traveling public.

America’s transportation system is facing significant challenges that must be addressed in the next surface transportation authorization bill, from financing our transportation system and reducing traffic fatalities to combating congestion and CO2 emissions. Solving these challenges will require transportation agencies and private sector partners to use all of the tools at their disposal, including intelligent transportation systems (ITS), related technologies, and multimodal operational strategies that can help prevent accidents before they happen, reduce traffic congestion and freight bottlenecks, provide more effective incident and emergency response, reduce energy use and emissions, and enable innovative 21st century financing options.

“As a result of successful research initiatives and private sector innovation, technologies are here today which can help increase safety, reduce congestion and emissions, boost competitiveness, improve system performance, and create more livable and sustainable communities,” the coalition wrote today to House transportation leaders. “While a continued and strengthened research role is still needed, it is critical that state and local agencies and private sector partners make better use of technology to modernize today’s infrastructure and optimize existing capacity, while building smart and efficient roads, bridges, transit systems, and multimodal transportation options for tomorrow’s transportation users.” 

(Source: Wall Street Journal & Politico via Yahoo)

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration plans to order auto makers to increase the overall fuel economy of automobiles sold in the U.S. to 35 miles per gallon by 2016, four years faster than current federal law requires, people familiar with the matter said Monday.

The move is part of a broader overhaul of fuel economy rules aimed at cutting greenhouse-gas emissions.

Image: Fueleconomy.gov

The Obama administration is expected to announce a plan to revamp federal vehicle fuel-efficiency standards to bring them into harmony with the goals of a California greenhouse-gas law. The Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation will jointly raise fuel-economy standards and reduce greenhouse-gas pollution under the plan.

Separately, auto makers have agreed to drop litigation challenging the legality of state-level curbs on tailpipe emissions of greenhouse gases, people familiar with the matter said.

An announcement of the agreement is expected Tuesday, with representatives of several large auto companies, including General Motors Corp. Chief Executive Fritz Henderson, and the president of United Auto Workers, Ron Gettelfinger, planning to participate, people familiar with the matter said.

The agreement worked out by aides to President Barack Obama represents a partial victory for the auto industry. The industry will be able to operate under a single national standard on fuel economy, rather than multiple regimes at the federal and state levels. Auto makers have long opposed California’s tailpipe emissions program as tantamount to state-level regulation of fuel economy, traditionally a federal responsibility.

But the standards will require huge investments by auto makers to remake their U.S. fleets so that they have roughly the same overall efficiency as vehicles they now sell in Europe, where gasoline is two to three times more expensive as in the U.S. By moving the 35 mpg requirement to 2016 from 2020, the administration is stepping up the pressure on the industry to overhaul its product lineup faster. It typically takes three to four years for auto makers to design and bring a new vehicle to market.

Auto executives are flying into Washington from around the world for the White House announcement.   California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, is expected to attend, the sources said.

The CAFE standard was established by Congress in 1975 in response to the Arab Oil embargo.   A 2007 energy law requires auto makers to boost the average fuel economy of their vehicle fleets to at least 35 miles per gallon by 2020, a 40% increase from the roughly 25 mpg standard for the current fleet.  Last summer, the Transportation Department estimated that requiring auto makers to achieve 31.6 mpg by 2015 would cost the industry $46.7 billion, a sum the agency said would make it among the most expensive rule makings in U.S. history.

“This rule will be a down payment on a broader and sustained effort to reduce our dependence on foreign oil,” he said. “Going forward, my administration will work on a bipartisan basis in Washington and with industry partners across the country to forge a comprehensive approach that makes our economy stronger and our nation more secure.”

According to two industry officials familiar with the plan, mileage standards would rise slowly at first — from a combined requirement of 27.3 miles per gallon for cars and trucks in 2011 — and faster approaching roughly 35 miles per gallon in 2016. That would give auto makers more time to adjust — and collect credits if they can manage to exceed earlier targets — before the steeper increases kick in.

It is unclear how quickly the EPA and the Transportation Department’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will be able to make a formal proposal for curbing emissions and boosting fuel economy. The EPA on Monday was holding a public hearing on its proposal to find that greenhouse gases endanger public health, the first step toward regulating them.