Center Update: Partnership Highlight
APTA and the Center Continue Cooperative Efforts 

This issue's Partnership Highlight focuses on the American Public Transportation Association (APTA). For over fifteen years the Center has partnered with APTA on a number of workforce development projects and APTA's President Michael Melaniphy serves on the Center's board of directors as did his predecessor William Millar. APTA and the Center have been in the forefront of workforce development issues in the transit and commuter rail industries. APTA has facilitated the Center's frontline workforce effort through opportunities to promote its programs and present its research findings at APTA events, providing display space at events and more. As an official standards-setting organization for the public transportation industry APTA accepted the Center-directed, industry-developed training standards for bus technician, railcar technician, signals maintainer and traction power mechanic. APTA has reviewed the training standards, put them out for public comment and posted the final products on the APTA website . More recently APTA has managed payments from agencies for the Elevator-Escalator, Signals and currently forming Railcar Consortia, organized by the Center. The Consortia are developing classroom ready training materials for each occupation. See the Center's website for more details on these projects and more. The Center offers its heartiest thank you to APTA leadership and staff for their support.
Public Transportation
Treehugger - February 29, 2016 
Everyone throws the world "socialist" around these days as if it is a terrible thing to be. The people who complain most about creeping socialism often are angry about money spent on transit and on bike infrastructure. But as Tim Engstrom points out , cars are the most socialist form of transportation. The fact is automobile drivers enjoy the most socialist aspect of America. While it might seem rather expensive to drive an automobile, the true, much more expensive cost is offset by all sorts of subsidies in this country of ours. Those gas taxes and vehicle registration fees indeed offset the cost of most of the highways. However, city streets, many local roads and many parking lots come from other tax sources, such as property taxes, income taxes and sales taxes. Everyone pays those regardless of whether they drive, bike or walk, yet the local streets and roads are where people generally walk and bike.
International Transportation News
Business Standard - March 1, 2016
With Guwahati city lacking an efficient public transportation system and the increasing traffic exerting pressure on the existing road network, the Assam government has planned to come up with a mass rapid transit system in the form of metro rail for the city within next five years. Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi yesterday laid the foundation stone of the project, the detailed project report of which was cleared by the state cabinet a few days back. The cabinet had also approved the formation of a special purpose vehicle, Guwahati Metro Rail Corporation Limited, for implementing the project.
The Hindu - March 1, 2016
In his 2016 Budget speech, the Finance Minister said, "Passenger traffic on our roads has to be made more efficient for the benefit of the common man and the middle class." This implies that road public transport in India, which is run by public bodies such as municipal corporations or State Road Transport Corporations (SRTCs), is not meeting those demands currently.
Transit System/Partners
AOL.News - March 1, 2016
The newly built World Trade Center Transportation Hub, designed to resemble a dove but tasked with the job of a phoenix, opens this week, nearly 15 years after the Sept. 11 attacks left Lower Manhattan in ashes. Oculus, the birdlike structure that is the hub's focal point, welcomes the public on Thursday, months ahead of the expected opening of connections to 11 New York City subway lines and the underground PATH trains that link New York to New Jersey.
The T wants to form a "quasi-startup" team as it seeks to improve rider-facing technology.
Boston.com - February 27, 2016
The agency that operates the nation's oldest subway system has posted a job opening on a startup-focused listings website. "We are a hardware company that needs great software," the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority says on AngelList, a prominent national startup website. The T's hunt for techies comes with the hiring of David Block-Schachter, formerly an executive at the technology-driven Boston shuttle service Bridj, as its chief technology officer. The hiring was described earlier this month by The Boston Globe as the T getting "technology religion" in an effort to improve customer service through programming. Block-Schachter said the T is hoping to hire a team of about 10 software engineers. 
Safety
Time Warner Cable News - March 1, 2016
The Transit Workers' Union wants the NYPD to beef up its presence on buses and around bus stops in the wake of some high-profile attacks on bus drivers.
The beating of this Brooklyn bus driver was caught on camera. As was this smack delivered onboard a Bronx bus. And those attacks occurred before a disturbed passenger drove off with an M101 for a few blocks last week in Manhattan. "Three bus operators a week are getting assaulted," said TWU 100 President John Samuelsen. "It must end, it must stop." Now the head of Transport Workers Union Local 100 is calling for an increased police presence on and around buses. "That is the ultimate deterrent against a criminal who thinks it's a smart idea to punch a bus operator in the face or spit on a bus operator or kick a bus operator," Samuelsen said.
Building Transportation Infrastructure
Sioux City Journal - February 29, 2016
Lincoln has a plan for a futuristic mass transit system that would include 50 electric-powered, driverless shuttles downtown that could seat up to a dozen people, alongside 650 driverless passenger cars. Officials said the plan could be launched within three years if the city were to win the Smart City Challenge issued by the U.S. Transportation Department. The department would provide a $40 million grant and $10 million would come from Vulcan Philanthropy. Nearly 80 cities are competing, and finalists for the $50 million will be announced in mid-March.
Next City - March 1, 2016
Big Expansion in the Cards for Nashville-Area Transit
While there hasn't been a formal decision made on which of three possible plans for expanded mass transit service in Nashville will advance, the region's mayors and county executives who serve on the board of the Nashville Area Metropolitan Planning Organization have put chips down on the more ambitious versions. The Nashville Business Journal reports that the Nashville Area MPO board voted to formally adopt the organization's 2040 transportation plan, which calls for a total of $8.5 billion in transportation improvements over that 24-year time frame.
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