Center Update
Center Publication Highlights Transportation Workforce Development Initiatives in Other Sectors and Countries - Including Germany
Recently, a lot of attention has been given to the German approach to workforce development.  Outlets like National Public Radio note that To Fill Skills Gap In U.S., Schools Look Abroad and that What Germans Know Could Help Bridge U.S. Workers' Skill Gap.  This is not a new idea at the Center.  In fact in 2009, the Center produced a report as part of the TCRP project on Establishing a National Transit Industry Rail Vehicle Technician Qualification Program which explores workforce development practices in countries including Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom as well as in the US based industries of electrical work, masonry, pipefitting and iron working that also promote a joint structure for workforce training.

The Center found that the core features of these effective training systems include:
1.    Sector-wide training partnerships
2.    Maintaining curriculum through a data-driven system
3.    Providing a secure source of funding
4.    Training and certification for new hires - training and apprenticeship
5.    Training and certification for lateral entrants and experienced
       incumbents

For more information on this research, read International and Domestic Comparisons: Building Capacity for Transit Training.
Public Transportation
National Journal - March 24, 2014
The transportation industry is growing anxious over the highway trust fund "cliff" that could hit as early as July. The fund is slowly running out of money, and if its coffers get too low, road and transit projects will be stalled. Congress is running out of time to draft and debate a full-blown surface transportation measure. They have to do something by Sept. 30, when the current law, MAP-21, expires.
The Washington Post - March 21, 2014
The American Public Transportation Association reported this month that U.S. transit ridership hit an all-time high last year. The March 10 report came with a caveat - "all-time" means "after 1956," but the numbers nevertheless sound impressive. Transit users took 10.65 billion trips in 2013, topping the previous record of 10.59 billion trips in 2008. These numbers were widely reported in the media, including in The Post, often with commentary suggesting a fundamental change in American travel behavior: a nation moving away from driving and toward more efficient and sustainable public transit.  But the association's numbers are deceptive, and this interpretation is wrong. We are strong supporters of public transportation, but misguided optimism about transit's resurgence helps neither transit users nor the larger traveling public.
DC Streets Blog - March 21, 2014
So transit ridership is up. Everybody knows that. It's at its highest point since 1956. Right? Well, ridership per capita is still less than half its 1956 point. And by 1956, transit ridership was already at a 40-year low. But with transit growing faster than car travel, at a rate that outpaces population growth, there is still cause for optimism.
Washington Post - March 12, 2014
Poet Maya Angelou, who became the first African-American female street car conductor in San Francisco, received a lifetime-achievement award from the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials during a program Wednesday celebrating "Women Who Move the Nation."  
ABC - March 13, 2014
Regular Augusta Public Transit bus rider Mary Maxwell isn't sure about how well privatizing the city bus system is going.   "Are they doing a good enough job," we asked.  "Not really. I guess, I guess, Ok, I guess," Maxwell said without a strong conviction.  Augusta Commissioners privatized the bus system three years ago, with the promise it would save $400,000 a year.  
Safety
Mass Transit Magazine - March 25, 2014
Federal investigators will focus on whether a CTA train operator fell asleep at the controls and if an automatic braking system was working properly as they seek to pinpoint the cause of a spectacular crash Monday that left a Blue Line car perched atop an escalator.
News Day - March 11, 2014
Nassau's bus system is exploring ways to protect drivers from violent passengers like one police say attacked a NICE driver last month, officials said. At a public forum Monday organized by the Long Island Bus Riders Union, Nassau Inter-County Express marketing and communications director Jack Khzous said the agency is considering several measures, including Plexiglas partitions, to protect bus operators, following the Feb. 24 assault of an N6X driver aboard a bus in Franklin Square.
Transit System/Partners
Progressive Railroading - March 25, 2014
MTA Metro-North Railroad has completed permanent changes to its signal system to ensure automatic speed enforcement at five critical curves and five moveable bridges in New York and Connecticut, the railroad announced yesterday.  
WBUR - March 20, 2014
The sleek facility about a block from the Broadway MBTA station looks new.  But it's not. Aside from the facade, everything inside the building, which used to be an abandoned subway tunnel, is almost 100 years old.  "[It's a] very difficult thing to do, to take a 1918 tunnel and bring it up to, at that time, 2013 code," said Randy Clarke, the T's senior director of security and emergency management, showing off the transit agency's state-of-the-art emergency training center in South Boston.  
Labor News
Philadelphia Inquirer - March 22, 2014
For Philadelphia-area commuters, the possibility of a first-ever transit strike by all SEPTA union workers could loom large when a federally mandated mediation process for Regional Rail engineers expires later this year.  After that, the engineers, who have been working without a new contract since 2010, would be permitted to strike. SEPTA's labor contract with city bus drivers and subway operators has already expired, and contracts with suburban operators and mechanics will expire in early April.  
Eight proposals to jump-start the incomes of workers.
The American Prospect - March 21, 2014
Once upon a time in a faraway land-the United States following World War II-workers reaped what they sowed. From 1947 through 1973, their income rose in lockstep with increases in productivity. Their median compensation (wages plus benefits) increased by 95 percent as their productivity increased by 97 percent.   
Upworthy - March 24, 2014
Raising the minimum wage is a hot topic all across the country. Here's a ton of facts, all loaded into one really pretty set of graphics. Some are even animated! I cover this topic all the time, and I learned a few things from it myself. Take a look:
 
Building Transportation Infrastructure
Baltimore Brew - March 17, 2014
The price is trending upward and proposed federal funding is down, but the biggest public works project in Baltimore's history, the 14-mile Red Line, is still on track to start construction in 2015, the project's chief planner tells The Brew.  Henry M. Kay, deputy administrator for planning and engineering at the Maryland Transit Administration, expressed optimism that the financial pieces of the $2.64 billion light-rail project are coming together. 
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