Center Update

Center Awarded TCRP Project F-19: National Training and Certification for Vehicle Maintenance Instructors         

The Transportation Learning Center has been awarded TCRP Project F-19, A National Training and Certification Program for Transit Vehicle Maintenance Instructors, with work to begin in late January 2013. This project will develop a detailed plan for curriculum and written and hands-on certification, along with a business plan for potential implementation in a vehicle maintenance instructor training and certification program.  The deliverables will include (1) a feasibility study; (2) a best practices report; (3) a training and certification program plan; and (4) a business plan for implementation of a vehicle maintenance instructor training and certification program. 

The research team combines the diverse strengths of uniquely qualified experts in instructional design, national training standards for transit technical occupations, apprenticeship and qualifications, transit maintenance technologies, and transit workforce development research, from the Center and EDSI Consulting.  Key team members include Center staff Dr. Chuck Hodell, the principal investigator and Senior Program Director, Instructional Design, John Schiavone, Program Director of Technical Training, and Xinge Wang, Director of Research, as well as Ken Mall and Brian Lester from EDSI Consulting.  Transit Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) will be recruited for an SME Working Group that will advise the Center team and later assist with implementation in the industry. 
Public Transportation

MLK Day 2013: Why Transportation is Still a Civil Rights Issue              

Robert Bullard - Op Ed News - January 20, 2013

Transportation provides access to opportunity and serves as a key component in addressing poverty, unemployment, and equal opportunity goals while ensuring access to education, health care, and other public services. The American society is largely divided between those with cars and those without cars.
House Members Urged to Vote for Frelinghuysen Amendment
APTA - January 15, 2013
More than two months after Hurricane Sandy hit the Northeast, three of the largest public transit systems in the United States -- the New York MTA, Port Authority - Trans Hudson (PATH), and NJ TRANSIT - along with those included in Presidential disaster declarations in 11 states and the District of Columbia, are still waiting for the federal government to come to their aid.  

4 Ways the Feds Are Making Transit Better           

Eric Jaffe - The Atlantic Cities - January 16, 2013

Much of Washington is in obstruction mode these days, but not the Federal Transit Administration. The FTA recently announced changes to New Starts and Small Starts - its main capital funding programs for transit - designed to expedite the grant process. Together the programs fund about half the cost of light rail, commuter rail, bus rapid transit, and ferry systems in the United States.    
International Transportation News

Five Hurt In Vienna Rush Hour Train Crash          

The Telegraph - January 21, 2013

In a large rescue operation involving around 25 fire engines as well as air ambulances, many of the injured had to be extracted from the wreckage of the crash using special cranes.  "At the moment there are five people seriously injured and several people with light injuries," emergency services spokesman Claudia Gigler said. "The seriously injured were taken immediately to hospital."  One of those seriously injured was one of the train drivers and there were as many as 20 people suffering light injuries, according to the Austria Press Agency.    
Transit System/Partners

WMATA Awards $151 Million Contract For Escalator Work                                            

Progressive Railroading - January 21, 2013

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) has awarded a $151.1 million contract to KONE Corp. to replace or modernize 128 of the system's 588 escalators by 2020 as part of the Metro Forward multi-year capital rebuilding program.
Safety News

FRA Data Shows Rail Industry Had Safest-Ever Year In 2012; NTSB Data Shows            

Transportation Deaths Declined In 2011
Progressive Railroading - January 21, 2013

Last year was the safest year in the rail industry's history based on performance measures tracked by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), the United Transportation Union (UTU) reported on its website Friday.  For the fifth fiscal year in a row, the industry posted improvements for all six safety performance measures monitored by the FRA: the rate of grade crossing incidents, human factor-caused train accidents, track-caused accidents, equipment-caused accidents, signal and miscellaneous train accidents, and non-accidental rail hazardous material releases.  
Workforce Development

Obama Inaugural Emphasizes Innovation, Risk Taking                                              

David Worthington - Smart Planet - January 21, 2013

U.S. President Barack Obama kicked off his second term today, and between the pomp and circumstance, offered a spirited defense of progressive ideals. The President used his inaugural address to champion the rationale that a social safety net encourages risk taking and entrepreneurism as well as renewing his pledge to invest in infrastructure, education, and science, and encouraging skilled workers to emigrate to the U.S.    

The Smartphone Have-Nots                                                  

New York Times - January 15, 2013

After Mishel finished his presentation, David Autor, one of the country's most celebrated labor economists, took the stage, fumbled for his own PowerPoint presentation and then explained that there was plenty of evidence showing that technological change explained a great deal about the rise of income inequality. Computers, Autor says, are fundamentally different.
Like us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter