Center Update
Rail Car Consortium Holds Virtual Mid-Year Meeting with LMS Preview
The National Rail Car Training Consortium held its mid-year virtual consortium webinar on Thursday, July 29. The Center’s Deputy Director, Xinge Wang and Instructional Designer, Kristen Ribaudo shared Phase III updates on recruitment, courseware development and editing, eLearning, and future meetings. Since the last full group meeting in December 2020, the Consortium has completed the development of classroom materials for Rerail training and the review of Trucks 102, 202 and 302 courses. Some exciting milestones have been reached in the Consortium, including the completion of the review of all Phase I and Phase II courses. In addition, the consortium’s first eLearning module on Rerailing is currently under development and will complement the classroom and hands-on learning materials. The Center’s Program Director of Instructional Design, Julie Deibel-Pundt gave Rail Car members a preview of the Center’s new Learning Management System (LMS), which was met with great excitement.
 
The Rail Car Consortium will begin development on a new course topic, Wheel Truing, with a virtual courseware development kickoff webinar on August 19th. A consortium in-person meeting is currently being explored for October 2021.
 
For more information on the Rail Car Training Consortium activities and membership, please contact Xinge Wang at xwang@transportcenter.org.
Upcoming Webinars
APTAU – August 12, 3:00 pm ET
Join representatives from King County Metro and the Port Authority of Allegheny County to discuss how equity assessments are being used to reevaluate transit service, programs and policies. How is a comprehensive equity assessment put in place and used effectively, what should be measured both internally and externally and what is the future of planning with an equity lens?  
 
UnionBase - August 12, 7:00 pm ET
This week, join UnionBase's Larry Wiliams, Jr. for a YouTube Live discussion with Jack Milroy of Australia's Defiance Digital. Jack will share his insights as a digital strategist into what rapid changes in information technology and even AI can mean for organizers and the labor movement. 
 
Eno Center for Transportation – August 19, 2:00 pm ET
As part of an 18-month research, policy, and communications project, Eno set out to analyze current and historical trends in public transit project delivery. We convened a set of advisors and conducted in-depth interviews with key stakeholders to understand the drivers behind mass transit construction, cost, and delivery in the United States. A comprehensive database of rail transit projects was created and curated to compare costs and timelines among U.S. cities and peer metropolitan areas in Western Europe and Canada. In this webinar, the authors will present key findings and takeaways from the report’s data analysis and nine regional case studies. Additionally, the authors will discuss Eno’s actionable recommendations for policy changes at all levels of government as well as best practices for the public and private sectors.
 
The American Prospect - August 31, 4:00 pm ET
For nearly two decades, worker centers have been at the forefront of rethinking strategies for addressing economic injustice and building worker power. These labor movement organizations have been engines of experimentation in the realms of worker organizing, narrative change, policy development, and labor-standards enforcement. There is much to glean, and celebrate, from their remarkable body of work.
Public Transportation
Governing - July 29, 2021
On the policy side, I certainly believe that bus service is still the fundamental foundation of a transit system that works for people. Over the past year, we've seen so many people switch to working from home. But transit has remained critical for essential workers and essential industries. It has kept our health-care systems, our food systems and our utilities afloat. A lot of the people providing those services not only are riding transit, but specifically are riding buses. I believe as much as I did when I wrote the book that bus service is critical to U.S. cities and that we still don't have enough service in most cities.
 
Metro Magazine - August 9, 2021
According to a policy brief released by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) in January 2021, nearly two-thirds of transit agencies (65%) were forced to cut service in 2020. And, as a result, more than 20% of those agencies had to conduct layoffs, while 17% had furloughs. While most transit agencies, thankfully, were able to avoid layoffs during this time, they are now hard-pressed to implement more cost- and time-efficient ways to boost the industry’s workforce, all while maintaining adequate service levels, a balanced budget, and additional funding avenues.
 
Governing - August 5, 2021
Richmond’s public transit service largely consists of the local bus routes that Danaher now relies on. While its express buses and other commuter-oriented services were swiftly hollowed out by the pandemic and the institution of mass telework, the bulk of its lines did not see the sharp decline in ridership that has challenged public transit’s fortunes in larger cities. Like many agencies, GRTC also scrapped fares in 2020 to enable better social distancing and prevent excess rider interaction with drivers. The agency’s pandemic policy proved a success. As of this June, Richmond’s bus routes were almost back to their 2019 ridership levels. Now the GRTC, like many smaller city public transit agencies, is grappling with what the pandemic reveals about its ridership and how it can best be served.
COVID's Impact on Transit
Mass Transit – August 4, 2021
Google commissioned a study in late spring/early summer, to assess how people living in major cities in the U.S. feel about resuming their pre-pandemic transit habits.
The online survey conducted by Allison+Partners Research + Insights found about two out of three people wanted to return to regular transit use.
Transit System/Partners
The Washington Post – August 2, 2021
Metro’s top executive on Monday warned employees that the transit system might start mandatory coronavirus testing if the agency’s vaccination rate doesn’t climb to at least 70 percent. Metro General Manager Paul J. Wiedefeld said in a memo to employees that about 40 percent of Metro’s workforce has indicated being vaccinated in an employee database. Although he indicated that he suspected the low rate was partly because of underreporting, he said he planned to send technicians to Metro stations, garages and offices with electronic tablets to help workers upload copies of their vaccination cards.
 
Mass Transit – August 5, 2021
Ensuring that all neighborhoods have reliable, robust bus service must be the SFMTA's top priority, but bringing cable cars back was crucial for a city that prizes history and ingenuity and that relies heavily on tourists. We can acknowledge, though, that cable cars need new ideas to survive, and Muni might not look the same in the future as it did in the past.
 
SacTown Magazine – July-August, 2021
Five years ago, Sacramento Regional Transit was on the verge of derailing. Riders felt unsafe, staff morale was low, and the agency was flat broke. Then Henry Li stepped in. He cut costs, launched innovative programs targeting climate change, equity and customer service, and built a $30 million reserve—leading him to be named, effectively, America’s public transit CEO of the year in 2019. But when Covid hit, ridership plunged, a key funding mechanism was pulled from the ballot, and now the future of commuting is a looming question mark. Whether you ride public transit or not, his decisions will affect your commute, the air you breathe and, in many ways big and small, the future of Sacramento. Henry Li is now arriving.
 
Transit Talent – August 7, 2021
The agency isn’t alone in the hunt for drivers with a coveted Commercial Driver’s License. New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority has canceled bus trips due to a driver shortage and a lack of qualified tank truck drivers was credited for a spike in gas prices earlier this spring. So, the agency is hoping some cold cash will be an incentive to pilot its buses.
International Transit News
Railway Technology – August 3, 2021
Despite concerns about health and safety, British people are committed to travelling in a sustainable fashion post-coronavirus. Data gathered by Thales showed that 50% of respondents are in favor of using more sustainable travel modes in the future, while 24% said they would like to use fewer planes and more trains.
Labor News
AFL-CIO – August 5, 2021
“The labor movement, the AFL-CIO and the nation lost a legend today. Rich Trumka devoted his life to working people, from his early days as president of the United Mine Workers of America to his unparalleled leadership as the voice of America’s labor movement. He was a relentless champion of workers’ rights, workplace safety, worker-centered trade, democracy and so much more. He was also a devoted father, grandfather, husband, brother, coach, colleague and friend. Rich was loved and beloved. Today, the 56 unions and 12.5 million members of the AFL-CIO mourn the passing of our fearless leader and commit to honoring his legacy with action. Standing on Rich’s shoulders, we will pour everything we have into building an economy, society and democracy that lifts up every working family and community.”
 
In These Times - AUGUST 5, 2021
This is the promise of unions. Not just better wages, or better working conditions, but a better society. Unions offer a frame for human interaction that does not otherwise exist. Our everyday experience in a society that is racially segregated, unequal, and politically polarized tells us that getting young and old and Black and white and left and right all together for something should be extraordinary or impossible; but at a union rally, where everyone’s common interest is plain to see, it becomes natural. It is only because the strength of unions within southern communities has become so rare that the sight of yesterday’s rally was so abnormal. Were there more strong unions, the South could be a very different place.
Economic Issues
Fortune - August 3, 2021 
To begin to rectify the wage gap between Black women and white men, companies need to make changes to their hiring and promotion practices, said Williams. Policies such as asking people to report their previous wages or discouraging workers from sharing how much they are being paid with colleagues can keep in place lower pay for Black women.
 
The Wall Street Journal – August 7, 2021
Black millennials thought college would help them get ahead. Instead, it is setting them back. The median net worth of households with Black college graduates in their 30s has plunged over the past three decades to less than one-tenth the net worth of their white counterparts, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Federal Reserve data. The drop is driven by skyrocketing student debt and sluggish income growth, which combine to make it difficult to build savings or buy a home. Now, the generation that hoped to close the racial wealth gap is finding it is only growing wider.
Green News
Streetsblog – August 5, 2021
A whopping $100 billion in consumer incentives (and $15 billion more for EV fueling infrastructure) were included in the first draft of Biden’s infrastructure stimulus, the American Jobs Plan, but as that legislation morphed into the sprawling Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, it was whittled down to just $15 billion, split evenly between chargers on interstates and electrifying the nation’s bus fleet. Details of the reconciliation bill remain vague, but it is widely expected to restore much of what electric car champions lost in the negotiations — though the same isn’t rumored for transit, biking and walking investments, all of which got negotiated down substantially, too. That news was met with frustration by mode shift advocates, who say Biden’s over-focus on electric vehicles as a silver-bullet climate solution will come at a steep cost to the modes that scientists agree hold the real key to saving the planet without accelerating the national traffic violence crisis: transit, biking and walking.
 
The Cougar – July 29, 2021
While electric cars may be a better alternative to gas-reliant cars, they still aren’t the best option for making transportation environmentally friendly. The better option would be to expand public transportation. Public transit allows a bunch of people in one vehicle at the same time, so with fewer gasoline cars on the road, this decreases CO2 emissions and the carbon footprint of each passenger. Public transportation in the U.S. saves over 11 million gallons of gasoline per day.
People & Tech
The Guardian – August 3, 2021
The failure of electric vehicles in the early 20th century, and the emergence of the internal combustion engine as the dominant form of propulsion, had a lot to do with liquid fuel providing far more energy per unit mass than a lead-acid battery can. But the explanation is not purely technical. It also has a psychological component. Buyers of private cars, then as now, did not want to feel limited by the range of an electric vehicle’s battery, and the uncertainty of being able to recharge it.
Transportation Learning Center
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