A Fond Farewell to Founding Director Brian J. Turner
Today, the first day of September, officially marks the retirement of the Transportation Learning Center's Founding Director, Brian J. Turner. Working with former Transport Workers Union President Sonny Hall, Turner created the Center in 2000 as a nonprofit institution that could bring labor and management together around shared concerns on skills training and safety. Dr. Beverly Scott, then leading an APTA task force on the future of the transit workforce, was recruited by Turner and became an early and enthusiastic management representative on the first Board of Directors.
Brian himself often jokes that he just doesn't know how to take "no" for an answer. The Center continues to exist because of his persistence and determination that a labor-management approach to workforce development is essential for the industry's future. While Brian will pursue other interests, he remains committed to the Center, serves on its Board and will be at least an occasional advisor to current staff.
Stay tuned for an announcement of an official going away celebration tentatively planned for Fall 2016.
High School Students and Recent Graduates Honored at MBTA's Summer Intern Graduation
On Wednesday, August 24, dignitaries from the Massachusetts ' Departments of Transportation and Labor and Workforce Development and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), along with local educators, gathered to honor thirty students as they graduated from the MassDOT Summer Intern Transportation Institute. During the seven-week summer program, students-from rising juniors to recent graduates, almost all from Madison Park Technical Vocational High School (MPTVHS)-worked in a range of positions in MBTA and MassDOT offices and shops and participated in weekly professional development training and transportation-related field trips.
The Guardian - August 27, 2016 If you've ever visited an iconic national park like Yellowstone, Yosemite or Glacier, your first glimpses of arresting, postcard-perfect vistas were probably framed by a car window. That's how I first glimpsed Yosemite's Half Dome. After driving through the tunnels on Big Oak Flat Road, the road curved and the valley came into view. Angels sang. I was so overwhelmed by that monolith's grandeur and beauty that I had to pull over onto the shoulder and have a good cry.
NJ Transit's Northeast Corridor line may be the state's most-often delayed, but it's the worst, according to commuters. That distinction goes to the Morris & Essex line, which was ranked last by commuters on NJ Transit's most recent Scorecard survey. The best rail line? Passengers using the Atlantic City line say they are the most satisfied with their service. Riders on the heavily-traveled Northeast Corridor line graded their service second-best of NJ Transit's eight rail lines. Last year, it was ranked worst.
New Orleans' public transit system is only now beginning to recover from the Hurricane Katrina flood that swamped the city 11 years ago, according to the latest report by the transit advocacy group Ride New Orleans. Through two rounds of adding additional buses - one in September 2015 and another in April - the Regional Transit Authority and its private manager, Transdev, returned service to more than 50 percent of its pre-storm capacity. But that leaves a long road ahead to match the RTA's 2004 size, especially in a city that remains 95,000 people smaller.
He said the new company will be called Yangon Urban Public Transportation Company (YUPT), which the bus control committee is forming at the request of the Yangon Region government's chief minister, U Phyo Min Thein. The region government is hoping to reduce the 350 or so bus lines across Yangon's chaotic transport system to around 50, and is encouraging companies to form PPPs in order to operate them. A public-private joint venture set up last year to operate a new Bus Rapid Transit system, BRT Lite, has gone well, but that only operates on two routes. Yangon Region's Public Transportation Authority Group (PTAG) said that so far eleven companies have applied to operate bus lines under the new system, and the deadline for accepting applications is tomorrow.
A cornerstone of San Diego's widely lauded vision to wage war on climate change -- getting people out of their cars and onto public transit, bicycles and sidewalks -- has never been achieved by any metropolis in the United States on the scale and time frame called for by the city. Leaders here seem unfazed, perhaps in part because they haven't fully analyzed key data measuring the challenge ahead. "It's still very, very early in this process," said Jack Straw, director of land-use and environmental policy for Mayor Kevin Faulconer. "We agree this is a very aggressive plan and it's going to take a lot of work to achieve, but by no means do we think it's impossible."
A major transit hub in Jamaica, Queens, is getting nearly $8 million in state money for upgrades that'll make it easier to catch a ride, State Sen. James Sanders will announce Tuesday. The money for the Jamaica Transportation Center Station Plaza - one of the city's busiest transit stations where commuters can catch a Long Island Rail Road, the E, J and Z trains and a host of bus routes - is intended to give more space to pedestrians at the bustling transit and retail center, said Sanders, who got money for the station improvements as part of a transportation funding plan hashed out with his fellow state lawmakers.
Transportation Trades Department - August 26, 2016
Edward Wytkind, president of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), issues this statement following the announcement in Wilmington, DE by Vice President Joe Biden on the winning bidder in Amtrak's high speed train purchase: "The U.S. economy and working people scored a victory today following the announcement by Vice President Joe Biden that Amtrak will be purchasing a new high speed train fleet from Alstom, which will manufacture the trains at its Hornell, New York facility employing members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.
One of the major bills Minnesota legislators have been aiming to hammer out in a special session this fall is a capital bonding and transportation package to raise new state funding for transportation. But so far, Gov. Mark Dayton, the DFL-controlled Senate and the House Republican majority have failed to agree on a much larger package of tax cuts, transportation and infrastructure improvements - a package intended to include promised state funding to extend the existing Green Line light rail southwest into Minneapolis' suburbs toward Eden Prairie.
