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The National Signals Training Consortium (the Consortium) met in Chicago last week. Don Orseno, CEO of the Metra commuter rail system, welcomed the group to Chicago. Orseno said that bringing labor and management experts together from across the industry is exactly the right way to build great training and promote needed learning across sites:
"I am very pleased to welcome this group to Metra and to Chicago. The Signals Consortium is engaged in a really unprecedented effort in rail and transit to bring together properties across the country and from different modes and from labor and management. All of us need help in improve our training for signals maintenance. Metra was a little slow to join the Consortium, but we hit the ground running, and our hosting this meeting reflects that. You know CEO's get together frequently in this industry, and we learn from each other. Dramatic improvements can take place with frontline workers and trainers and supervisors meeting together and learning together. I look forward to the results of this week's meeting and the continuing work of the Consortium."
FTA Regional Administrator Marisol Simon also addressed the group citing the high priority of workforce training in recent FTA grants. In discussion with the group after her presentation, Ms. Simon also shared her experiences working for Amtrak and becoming the first woman to become a signals maintainer in the Northeast Corridor. She started out as a helper and didn't like digging ditches, so she learned the craft. "The work you're doing will make things much easier for the next Marisol who comes along and wants to learn signaling," she concluded.
To date the Signals Consortium, composed of
20 mass transportation agencies and their
unions, has called on their
over 600 years of experience to develop over
350 hours of instructional material. Development of courseware for the entire training program is scheduled to be completed by Summer 2016, but this group has just gotten started! Future tasks include::
*
Recruitment of
women and
veterans into signals maintenance jobs
* Piloting and
refining courseware
* Supplementing courses with audio visual materials like
instructional
videos
* Recruitment of more
consortium members
A highly successful
orientation meeting was held on the first day of the meeting for new and interested members (PowerPoint Presentation below). Severa.l new locations expressed interest in joining this dynamic group following this orientation meeting.
For more information:
* Courseware Samples on
Transit Training Network
*
Orientation PowerPoint Presentation
* The Center's
Facebook Page
* Contact Project Manager
Mark Dysart
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In somewhat confusing news, a study published by the American Heart Association found commuting by bus or train to work may be healthier than walking, cycling, or driving. The study (conducted in Japan) found that compared to drivers, people who used public transport were 44 percent less likely to be overweight, 27 percent less likely to have high blood pressure, and 34 percent less likely to have diabetes, reports Yahoo. (Note: Though the study methodology is not evident yet.) Somewhat improved health benefits were also seen for commuters in comparison with walkers and bikers, the research concluded. The researchers suggest commuters could be walking farther to and from the train or bus station than people who biked or walked to and from work.
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More than 90 percent. That's about how many Tri-State residents rely on automobiles as their primary means of transportation, just one finding in a new joint study released Tuesday morning by the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber of Commerce, Agenda 360, Skyward and the Urban Land Institute. The study joins a national trend of self-reflection among metropoles in the U.S. seeking to assess whether investment in public transit is worth the investment. Local leaders and transit experts presented "The Connected Region: Greater Cincinnati & Northern Kentucky" at a chamber breakfast Tuesday morning. The study measured Cincinnati's reliance on alternative modes of transportation like buses, ride-sharing (like Zipcar, Uber or Lyft), as well as walking and biking, compared with 11 peer cities: Austin, Charlotte, Cleveland, Columbus, Denver, Indianapolis, Louisville, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Raleigh and St. Louis.
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A transit police officer reached for his wallet instead of his ticket book when a bus driver told him a disruptive passenger was not wearing shoes. Delaware River Port Authority Officer Kenya Joyner was on patrol Saturday when he was flagged down by the bus driver at Lindenwold High Speed Line Station. Joyner escorted the man from the bus because passengers are required to wear shoes.
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International Transportation News
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The participants were disseminated into three groups, those who walked or cycled to work, those who commute and those who drive to work.
Many cyclists have taken to the saddle because commuting by bike is a great way to lose pounds. There are many reasons to toot the horn for public transportation, now Japanese researchers have a few more to add. According to a study presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2015, riding the bus or train to work is associated with significant improvements in health. The study, which was conducted in Japan, found that compared to drivers, public transport riders were 44 percent less likely to be overweight, 27 percent less likely to have high blood pressure and 34 percent less likely to have diabetes.
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Amid some political dissent, city hall's $880-million plan for a hybrid light rail/bus rapid transit system left the station Monday with London politicians voting unanimously to endorse it. That staff-recommended option - light rail between downtown and the north and east ends; bus-only rapid transit to the south and west - was OK'd as the "preliminary preferred" choice as council met Monday as the strategic priorities and policy committee. This was only an endorsement, not a final council decision. The light rail/bus hybrid option will now go out for public feedback before council makes an official decision, likely in January.
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Miami-Dade Transit announced Monday the addition of 43 60-foot, diesel-electric buses to its existing metrobus fleet. Transit director Alice Bravo says the initial purchase of this fleet is close to $40 million, which means each bus costs over $900,000. This addition comes on the heels of a Miami Herald investigation into mass transit in the county, published last week. It featured passengers' complaints about bus schedules and overcrowding. "Nothing's more frustrating than you're waiting for the bus and the bus comes and it's full. So providing these higher-capacity buses on those routes helps us make sure we can give everybody a ride to their destination," Bravo says.
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She's a familiar voice to KYW listeners as chief spokesperson for SEPTA and before that the FBI's Philadelphia office, but Jerri Williams is making a big career change. She'll announce, today, that she's leaving SEPTA, not for another employer, but to pursue her dream of becoming a crime novelist. "I've always wanted to write," says Williams, "and it was really after only one or two classes that I thought, 'I can do this,' and started writing my novel." That first novel, Pay to Play, is already "on submission" in New York publishing houses. She calls it "edgy" and it's certainly a different side of Williams than you see when she goes before the cameras to explain, for example, SEPTA's plan for the Pope's visit.
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Most of the projected job openings in Massachusetts over the next seven years will not require a four-year college degree, but an already strained vocational education system will be unable to train enough people to fill those vacancies, according to a report to be released Monday. It warns that the state faces severe labor shortages in health care, manufacturing, and other key industries as an expanding economy and retiring baby boomers create some 1.2 million job openings by 2022. Such shortages could undermine one of the state's key competitive advantages - a skilled, productive workforce - making it harder to attract and retain companies, and slowing economic growth, the report, to be released by Northeastern University, finds.
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Building Transportation Infrastructure
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The U.S. Department of Transportation has awarded $27.8 million in Federal Railroad Administration funds to conduct studies on building a superconducting magnetic levitation (SCMaglev) train between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced late last week. The funds will support private-sector efforts to bring SCMaglev trains to the Northeast region. The Baltimore-Washington corridor was one of three corridors in the United States eligible to apply for Maglev projects.
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