National Signals Training Consortium Meets at TriMet to Develop Courseware, Discuss Apprenticeship and More
The National Signals Training Consortium (the Consortium) met in Portland last week. Neil McFarlane, General Manager of TriMet, welcomed the group to Portland and stressed the importance of the consortium's work within the industry.
To date the Signals Consortium, composed of 22 public transportation agencies and their unions (listed below) have worked with the Center to develop over 350 hours of instructional material, draft an apprenticeship framework, share best practices and develop recruitment strategies to fill the upcoming skills gap - calling particularly on recruitment of veterans and women.
The U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Transit Administration (FTA) today published revised guidance to transit agencies on how to comply with federal Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) guidelines. FTA produced the circular to ensure that transit agency leadership understands and follows EEO requirements to prohibit discrimination in the workplace and stays in sync with changes that have occurred as federal laws impact civil rights.
Australia - The safety of Queensland bus drivers is under review amid concern over a growing number of assaults on drivers. State Transport Minister Stirling Hinchliffe announced the review, saying 350 drivers have been assaulted across Queensland in the past six months. He said the review would examine safety measures, training and protocols currently in place to protect drivers. "Public transport workers - particularly bus drivers - often fall victim to verbal or physical abuse, simply for just doing their job," he said. Transport Workers Union branch secretary Peter Biagini said the review was long overdue and called for harsher penalties for people who attack bus drivers.
The Maryland Department of Transportation's Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) will close the BWI Business District Light Rail Station and the BWI Airport Light Rail Station from October 7 to October 11 to replace a grade crossing at Andover Road. This track work will help increase the safety, efficiency and reliability of the Light Rail system. To minimize the inconvenience, MTA will provide free shuttle bus service for passengers from the North Linthicum Light Rail Station to the BWI Airport Light Rail Station with stops in between at the Linthicum and BWI Business District stations. Shuttle buses will operate during regular Light Rail service hours from 6 p.m. Friday, October 7, until 1 a.m. Tuesday, October 11.
Sarah Blustain arrived at the Hoboken Terminal at eight-forty-seven this morning; just two minutes after New Jersey Transit train 1614 on the Pascack Valley Line jumped a rail bumper and crashed through the terminal wall. The ceiling of the terminal had already collapsed. "I saw one woman who was seriously injured," Blustain said, along with many people with more minor injuries. Within the hour, officials would report that one person was killed and more than a hundred were injured. The incident came just eleven days after pipe bombs were found at a transit station in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and people at Hoboken Terminal were openly wondering whether the train crash was the result of terrorism. One man "said he heard an explosion and started running," Blustain said. But soon Governor Chris Christie assured a worried public that there was no evidence this was anything other than a rail accident.
When voters go to the poll on Nov. 8, 2016, residents in Los Angeles county will vote on more than just the national presidency. They will vote whether or not to enact Measure M, the last part of Metro's Long Range Transportation Plan that will help mitigate Los Angeles's traffic and environmental crises. Measure M is the final part of Metro LRTP the public will decide on. This measure will help improve freeway traffic flow and safety, repair potholes and sidewalks, repave local streets and earthquake-retrofit bridges, synchronize signals, keep senior, disabled and student fares affordable, expand rail, subway and bus systems, improve job, school and airport connections, and create jobs, according to Metro.
The Central Ohio Transit Authority's high-frequency Cleveland Avenue bus route will turn around at a new transit center in the Northland area when it starts running in January 2018. COTA's board of trustees approved a $3 million contract on Wednesday with Gutknecht Construction to build the Northland Transit Center on Cleveland Avenue near the site of a former Meijer store about one-quarter mile south of Route 161.
Ypsilanti resident Georgina Hickey said she's been waiting years for a commuter train that can take her to her job in Dearborn. "Jennifer Granholm told me she would get me a train before she left office, so I've been waiting for a train for a while," said Hickey, a history professor at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, who would like to be able to hop on a train in Depot Town and get off at the Dingell Transit Center in Dearborn. "I'd love to be able to ride the train. It would be great. Right now I drive, usually by myself," she said.
