Center Executive Director Jack Clark received plaque from ATU Joint Conference  Board Financial Secretary-Treasurer Esker Bilger (left) and Joint Conference Board President Calvin Kennedy (right).  The ATU Joint Conference Board met in Little Rock, Arkansas and invited Clark to address issues involving safety and skills training in labor-management partnerships 

Last week, U.K. Labour leadership candidate Jeremy Corbyn revealed an "end street harassment" plan. Among his suggestions include ones that I support-such as running public awareness campaigns and ensuring that public safety concerns are represented and addressed by local and national political leaders-and one in particular that I do not: women-only public transportation. I'm not alone, and the suggestion has generated heated debate in the U.K. and beyond.
Street harassment has long been considered a compliment or a minor annoyance; something people should just "get over." But many groups and people are now disagreeing with this characterization. Corbyn is the latest high-profile person to say it is a serious issue. While it's wonderful he is acknowledging that street harassment is a problem, he wrote that he would consider women-only public transportation, an idea he said "some women have raised with me." I find this problematic.

The Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA) will receive $303,000 in federal funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) to support training for transit workers, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced late last week.  The funds are part of the USDOT's recently announced funding for the Federal Transit Administration's Innovative Workforce Development Program, which will provide $9.5 million in grants to support 19 workforce training projects in 13 states.

The cost of bringing Boston's transit system into overall sound working order has climbed again and is now estimated at more than $7.3 billion, transportation officials said Monday.  The new number represents an increase of more than $650 million in the state of good repair backlog over another estimate earlier this year - a figure which itself had more than doubled in five years.  

Beginning Sunday, Staten Islanders will see a new travel accessory: bicycle racks affixed to the front of city buses, allowing riders to take their two-wheelers with them.  The Bike & Ride pilot program, under MTA New York City Transit, will add bicycle racks to two Island bus routes; it is the first time such a plan is being implemented on the Island.   

The union representing MTA bus drivers is crowing that the controversial "Right of Way" law will now start working the right way.  Transport Workers Union Local 100 leaders say the drivers scored a break under a deal reached with the de Blasio administration Monday.  The Right of Way law mandated that drivers who injure or kill pedestrians crossing with the light in their favor be charged with a misdemeanor.  Six bus drivers were arrested under the law, prompting a campaign from the TWU slamming the de Blasio administration.  "The police were arresting our bus operators as if the accident itself was evidence of some wrongdoing on the part of our operators," TWU President John Samuelsen told the Daily News.

A gleaming blue streetcar glides along a narrow 2.7-mile loop here, picking up and dropping off passengers near downtown parks, restaurants and the home where Martin Luther King, Jr. was born.  The tiny route, launched in December 2014, is "phase one of a grand vision," the city says, to build 50 miles of lines linking popular destinations to neighborhoods and other forms of transportation, easing the heavy traffic for which Atlanta is notorious.  But the system has cost $98 million to design and build, a figure that expanded over the course of construction, opened more than a year behind schedule, and has suffered several snags including the loss of service for several days this summer when the line's power delivery service needed repairs.

The New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (RTA) has experienced an "amazing renaissance" in the 10 years since the city was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, says RTA Chairman Sal Longoria.  In RTA's report to the community, "Rebuilding for Tomorrow: Our Progress and Vision for the Future," Longoria writes that the city's transit system faced "enormous challenges" to overcome the devastation that occurred in the aftermath of Katrina, which struck New Orleans on Aug. 29, 2005.   According to the report, more than half of the agency's vehicles were destroyed and others were severely damaged. The RTA's maintenance and operational facilities and administrative offices were destroyed. Employees were devastated by the loss of their homes.  

According to unofficial results yesterday, Phoenix voters approved a proposed transportation plan as part of a citywide election.  The plan, called Transportation 2050, was developed by a citizen-led committee of transportation experts and community advocates, and dramatically expands investment in Phoenix for bus service, light rail construction and street improvements.  Elements of the plan include building an additional 42 miles of light rail throughout the city, providing late night bus and Dial-a-Ride service citywide, and repaving over 680 miles of arterial streets.  The plan will be funded in part by a 7/10ths of a cent sales tax starting on Jan. 1, 2016.