Center Update
In Effort to Increase and Strengthen Applicant Pool, GCRTA Partners with the Center to Pilot Transit Core Competencies Curriculum (TC3)
Over thirty aspiring Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA) operators and electrical and mechanical technicians arrived at El Barrio Workforce Development Center in Cleveland on May 18 to participate in the first pilot of Module 1 of the new ten-module Transit Core Competencies Curriculum (TC3) - Public Transportation Industry Overview.  TC3 is being developed by the Transportation Learning Center, in collaboration with working groups of agency subject matter experts from labor and management, along with experienced educators and trainers involved in career and technical education and workforce development.  TC3 is designed to introduce diverse groups of young people and adults in the communities public transportation serves to frontline career opportunities in the industry generally and to provide baseline knowledge and skills in electrical and mechanical theory and practice and vehicle and facilities maintenance. TC3's goal is to provide participants nationally the opportunity to become strong and successful applicants, trainees and apprentices.

The pilot brought together two FTA-funded Innovative Workforce Development initiatives, as TC3 becomes part of GCRTA's partnership with El Barrio and Cuyahoga Community College to recruit and train women, minorities and veterans, especially from low income communities, to enter the GCRTA workforce.  GCRTA and El Barrio leadership and trainers attended the pilot, and their feedback and the evaluations collected from the participants--with a majority ranking the overall program at 9 or 10 on a scale of 10--will be used to create the final draft of the TC3 Overview materials.  Pilots of a variety of TC3 module will continue throughout the year, with programs currently being planned with Mile High Youth Corps in Denver and the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority in Boston.  For information about TC3, please contact Pat Greenfield at pgreenfield@transportcenter.org.
Public Transportation
It's the unofficial start to summer, and the last place you want to be is stuck inside a tiny apartment when you could be out enjoying the spring weather.
Instead of heading to Central Park with every tourist in town, why not get out of Manhattan altogether and enjoy a little time away. Don't have a car? No problem. Here are eight easy day trips by transit that are perfect for Memorial Day weekend.
Access to good public transportation seems like an obvious component of affordable-housing planning, but history shows that it hasn't been so far. Here in the Pittsburgh area, there are many low-income housing projects that sit in isolated sections of the city, in blighted areas with limited bus access. (For example, Bedford Dwellings, in the Hill District, gets a bus only every 35 to 40 minutes, even during rush hour.) In response to this ominous trend, transit advocates posed some public-transportation questions to Pittsburgh's Affordable Housing Task Force at a May 24 panel discussion hosted by the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania. The discussion was centered on funding issues involving the city's proposed Affordable Housing Trust Fund and how it can raise its goal of $10 million annually.  
International Transportation News
The world's first amphibious taxi service could be set to hit London's highways and waterways as state-of-the-art vehicles took to the Thames to show how they can offer another option for public transportation. Amphibian vehicle experts Gibbs Technologies demonstrated its high-speed amphibian (HSA) fleet in front of taxi company executives and potential licensees in London in a bid to showcase how road-to-water cabs could revolutionize the capital's transportation scene.
Transit System/Partners
NBC 10.com
SEPTA is unveiling a new partnership on Wednesday in hopes to get more people using the rail system in the Philadelphia suburbs and it might surprise people which entity the transit agency is now calling a partner. SEPTA is teaming up with popular ride-share company Uber to hopefully increase the amount of riders on the Jenkintown-Wyncote Station this upcoming summer. The partnership is the result of research SEPTA is conducting on how ride-sharing companies are affecting public transportation. 
Scene & Heard - May 25, 2016
At its meeting Tuesday afternoon, Cuyahoga County Council passed a resolution urging the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (RTA) to exhaust all options before raising fares or cutting routes. The resolution also urged the State of Ohio and the U.S. Department of Transportation to make more transit funding available.  The RTA's presumed fare hikes and service cuts have been a major story of 2016. Ever since the transit authority's board approved a 2016 budget in December, 2015, these options have been on the table. At the end of this year, RTA will only have $7 million in reserves on hand. That's enough to keep the system running for two weeks.
Safety
Citylab - May, 2016
Attention people who like riding little vehicles inside much larger, faster vehicles: Boston's not the place for you. The MBTA just banned hoverboards due to a "string of recent injuries, fires and explosions" nationwide. The agency exiled the scooting planks from stations, subways, buses, trains, and commuter boats after an internal assessment determined they posed a safety risk. The issue, of course, is those batteries that can go up in flames seemingly at random.
Labor News
The San Diego Union-Tribune - May 25, 2016
Hundreds of bus drivers went on strike Wednesday morning leaving thousands of commuters who rely on public transportation without rides. The First Transit union workers walked out after they and their employer reached an impasse in contract negotiations over wages. 
Building Transportation Infrastructure
Progressive Railroading - May 25, 2016
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (MTA) $27 billion 2015-2019 Capital Program has received final approval from the Capital Plan Review Board, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced yesterday. The program's passage marks the largest investment in the agency's infrastructure in state history and paves the way for five years' worth of vital investments aimed at renewing, enhancing and expanding the agency's network, MTA officials said in a press release. This year, New York state committed $8.3 billion in funding to the capital plan.
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