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Subject Matter Experts Reviewing Courseware
This week, the Transit Elevator/Escalator Training Consortium reconvened in Silver Spring, MD. During the meeting, this team with over 350 years of cumulative experience in transit and training:
* Reviewed and
finalized 11 modules for master technician courses
* Scheduled upcoming
courseware pilots
* Discussed
future role of the consortium
* Shared
best practices around apprenticeship
For more information on the Transit Elevator/Escalator Training Consortium, contact project manager
Jim Kinahan.
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What is it going to take for Congress to recognize that we need a new transportation strategy, one that makes public transportation a reality for every community in America? After 35 short-term extensions, the House and Senate have both finally passed multi-year transportation bills. The question remains how much of an investment the final legislation will make in public transit. Our population will exceed 400 million people within the next few decades; we're one of the most advanced nations on Earth. And yet, 45 percent of Americans still have no public transit available to them. We need a better strategy for ensuring people and goods can get where they need to go on time and affordably. We can't keep treating public transit likes a second-class solution. An investment in public transit is an investment in America's future.
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The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency has launched a new Smartphone app that allows passengers to pay for transit fares online. MuniMobile is designed as an alternative to cash and the existing reloadable Clipper card. SFMTA's director of transportation Ed Reiskin said the app would save time for transit riders and decrease costs for Muni. Reiskin said most transit riders in San Francisco have smartphones with Internet access, but that roughly half of all riders are still using cash to ride Muni.
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After a press conference that saw congressmen and senators, a mayor elect and a union leader, each talk about getting one step closer to a long-promised extension to bring the Broad Street Line to the Navy Yard, Congressman Bob Brady elaborated on the possibilities of this potential economic driver.
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The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), Metra and Pace have announced that the Ventra mobile fare app will become available on Thursday. The app will allow customers to pay for rides on all three transit systems, CTA officials said in a press release. Developed jointly by the three agencies and funded by Chicago's Regional Transportation Authority, the app enables passengers to perform other tasks, including managing their fare accounts, loading transit/value passes, and access real-time departure and arrival information.
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Metra announced Hilary Konczal has been named the agency's first chief safety and environmental officer. The newly created position puts Metra in line with best practices and Federal Transit Administration (FTA) recommendations and consolidates safety and environmental units under one officer. Reporting directly to the executive director/CEO, Konczal is responsible for the administrative oversight and management of Metra's safety programs and initiatives, environmental compliance and industrial hygiene activities. "At Metra, safety is our highest priority and Hilary has shown his commitment to ensuring our customers are safe in their commutes and employees are safe in their work environments," said Metra Executive Director/CEO Don Orseno.
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Law enforcement officials across Washington are taking additional steps to protect the nation's capital and its infrastructure following the Islamic State's threat to strike Washington in the days following its deadly attack on Paris. The FBI said it and the Department of Homeland Security are "closely monitoring" events in Paris. "At this time, there is no specific or credible threat to the United States. We will not hesitate to adjust our security posture, as appropriate, to protect the American people," the FBI said in a statement. "DHS and the FBI routinely share information with our state, local, federal and international law enforcement, intelligence and homeland security partners, and continually evaluate the level of protection we provide at federal facilities."
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In consideration of the recent global terror attacks in Paris, France, and Beirut, Lebanon, the purported terror attack aboard Egypt's Metrojet Flight 9268, and other recent attacks across the globe, United States Transit Funding Inc. and the leadership team at ePassenger and iPassenger is issuing the following statement and advisory for the domestic passenger-carrier transportation and transit industry. "On behalf of United States Transit Funding Inc. and its team, we are genuinely concerned regarding the latest wave of terror attacks in Europe and the Middle East," Barry Lewis, chief executive officer of United States Transit Funding Inc., ePassenger and iPassenger.
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Building Transportation Infrastructure
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The Northern Virginia Transportation Commission sees huge growth ahead for Tysons Corner, the huge edge city just beyond the Capital Beltway around Washington, D.C. The commission recently stated in a video that "the Tysons business district, which is booming today, is expected to transform into a city the size of present-day Seattle or Houston by 2040." Leaving aside for now the fact that the city of Houston has about 3.5 times as many residents as Seattle, and twice as many in its metropolitan region, no matter what target the NVTC picks, we're talking large numbers of people. And a lot of them will find themselves stewing in already-clogged traffic on Virginia Route 7 (which runs northwest from Alexandria to Tysons and beyond) if something isn't done.
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The Quincy Finance Committee decided Monday night to table discussion on a potential loan that would keep the city's buses running in the new year, hoping Illinois will pass a budget and state funding will come through. On Monday, city officials learned both Jacksonville and Hancock County received their overdue state funding, so they're hoping to receive their share of that money. For many in Quincy, the bus is the only way to get around town. "From work, doctor's offices, stores," Quincy resident David Miller said, "Me and my wife and kids, we always take the bus." David Miller says if he didn't have the bus, his only mode of transportation would be his own two feet. However, he says that definitely wouldn't be a viable option for his family. Miller says other riders have equal or tougher challenges. "There's a lot of disabled people that can't walk anywhere. I don't know what they're going to do," Miller said.
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