Center to Deliver Second Workshop at APTA Rail Conference: 'Employees are our Greatest Asset - Perspectives from the Shop Floor'
This workshop will engage participants in a lively discussion of key factors that are important for effective labor-management collaboration.
The industry's ultimate success of public transportation services, capital program implementation, critical initiatives and imperatives like developing a "system safety culture" are all "people-centered." An opportunity to tap the "hands-on" knowledge and experience of frontline employees, comprised of over 80% of public transportation's workforce, also provides an invaluable perspective and insight, which adds an important voice to industry discussions.
This workshop will be a facilitated discussion with frontline maintenance, operators and stakeholders, covering a range of topics, including: (1) developing and implementing a "safety culture:" (2) workforce development training programs and lessons learned; and best practices in the introduction of new equipment, technologies and maintenance programs.
Moderators:
Madeline Janis, Esq., Executive Director, Jobs to Move America, Los Angeles, CA
Jack Clark, Executive Director, Transportation Learning Center, Silver Spring, MD
Panelists:
Jerome Moore, Elevator Inspector, Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, and member, TWU Local 234, Philadelphia, PA
Douglas Schneider, Instructor, Rail Vehicle Maintenance, Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority, and member, ATU Local 268, Cleveland, OH
Vincent Louque, Material Coordinator, Kinkisharyo, Los Angeles, CA
This workshop will take place on Monday, June 12, 10:30 a.m. - 12 p.m.
For more information, visit the conference website.
Center Discusses Apprenticeship Initiative at ATU Black Caucus Meeting
Center Project Manager Tia Brown presented at the Amalgamated Transit Union Black Caucus on Friday May 26. During this presentation, she highlighted the American Apprenticeship Initiative project the Center is currently working on. She provided an in-depth discussion of the Center's approach to apprenticeship development and implementation in bus maintenance and transit coach operator maintenance. She also answered a variety of questions from ATU members regarding the development of apprenticeships, joint labor management committees, and mentor training among others. If you would like more information regarding the American Apprenticeship Initiative, you can contact Program Manager Tia Brown.
Just grab a subway map - free from the manned station kiosks - or download one on your phone, and go for a ride. Whether you encounter rush hour commuters, a mariachi band, a preacher or a panhandler, it's bound to be colorful - but it also happens to be the cheapest and most efficient way to traverse the city.
MTA Staten Island Railway is making history as the railway heads into new and exciting territory: Sally Librera, a longtime leader in MTA New York City Transit's Department of Subways operations, has been appointed as Chief Officer for Staten Island Railway, making her the first woman to lead the railway.
LA Metro has been laser focused on its rail system, investing billions in new lines and extensions, leading to a 4.2 percent bump in subway and light rail ridership last year (and a whopping 20 percent increase from 2009 to 2016). Now, the agency recognizes it's been neglecting its buses and is making plans for a big overhaul.
As part of an effort to improve customer satisfaction with cleanliness on the trains, workers have been installing industrial-grade air fresheners on 6000-series trains that traverse the Green Line.
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) next month will wrap up its SafeTrack maintenance projects and transition to a new preventive maintenance and capital program. The new effort will be aimed at avoiding another emergency program of the scale of SafeTrack, WMATA officials said in a press release.
[MTA spokeswoman Erin] Henson said the planned launch of the new BaltimoreLink bus system would go ahead as scheduled June 18. She said the department does not expect the transition to be a problem because [Acting Administrator, Kevin] Quinn had taken the lead in designing and developing the new route system.
In 1892, trains began operating on a line between a terminal at 39th Street to Congress Street in Chicago. Those trains consisted of four wooden passenger cars pulled by a small coal-burning steam locomotive.
Five years after it was first announced, the extension of the Silver Line to Chelsea will be complete next year, giving riders in the growing city a direct connection to downtown Boston.
Funding for Caltrain electrification, which Transportation Secretary Chao approved May 22, is one of 21 transit projects receiving funding in the omnibus spending bill that may be contingent on approval from the Trump Administration.
The potential expansion projects include eight within the city and two partially in the city. (Two other heavy rail extension projects have been proposed, but are located entirely outside the city.)
The White House is debating whether to identify funding offsets when it releases a proposal or let lawmakers hash it out at the committee-level, officials said on a press call Friday.
The more lane miles a state has, the more federal transportation dollars that state qualifies for. What is the incentive? It is, of course, to build more lane miles. Add to this the fact that federal transportation programs generally pay 90%+ for new construction, but only ~50% for maintenance, and we have a system that encourages states to build more than they can ever maintain.
The allocated grants will be used to install PTC technology comprising back office systems and wayside communications, as well as associated on-board hardware equipment.
Kenyan and Chinese officials last Wednesday inaugurated a 290-mile-long railway built and largely financed by the Chinese between Kenya's and East Africa's busiest port, Mombasa, and Kenya's capital and financial and commercial center, Nairobi.
Even a single month's volatility can have a cascading effect. One month, a family copes by using the money earmarked for, say, the utility bill to cover the cost of replacing a busted water heater. The next month, it's the telephone company that goes unpaid as the family struggles to make up the missed utility bill plus late fees and interest - and so on. Emergencies are not the only source of expense spikes. So are bridal showers, Christmas gifts and outgrown winter coats.
