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» While a majority of Senate members voice their support for transportation spending, a significant minority may stand in the way of big advances. In response to the President’s State of the Union Address in February, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal (R) criticized the stimulus, arguing that it was “larded with wasteful spending.” He pointed to the $8 billion devoted to high-speed rail as a specifically unnecessary expenditure. It became clear at that moment that the As Los Angeles installs its first devices, their value is worth considering. At four of Los Angeles’ subway stations, Metro has installed turnstiles at entrances in a demonstration project. The gates are intended to ward off fare evaders and enhance the safety of the system, and if they prove valuable, they will be installed elsewhere in the network. Putting in the devices will require a significant expenditure on the part of Metro, but with millions lost annually to non-paying riders on the relatively high-ridership system, the price is right, since the machines will last for decades and
Four months before originally envisioned, Vancouver’s TransLink inaugurates service today on the new Canada Line, an automated light metro. If preliminary expectations prove accurate, the corridor will attract more than 100,000 riders a day, making it one of North America’s most-frequented rapid transit routes. The project will make possible quick rides downtown from Vancouver’s central neighborhoods, its airport, and suburban Richmond. Its successful completion With BART employees likely to go on strike Monday, it’s worth a look back at some of the most memorable strikes in public transportation over the years. On Monday, the employees of the Bay Area’s BART rapid transit system are likely to go on strike after management imposed a 7% pay cut as a result of the agency’s budget problems. This week, employees rejected a proposal that would have capped salaries at today’s levels, and they’re hoping for a better deal as a result of what will likely be a paralyzing few days for the hundreds of Project requires help from international organizations such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank before it can get off the ground. Vietnam Railways Corp announced today that it will use Japanese Shinkansen technology for its planned high-speed rail line between the capital Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. The 1,000-mi railway will replace a train line originally built during French colonial control, covering most of the country’s north-south length. Though the mammoth project has yet to be funded, Japanese train manufacturers took heart in the news as they begin their push into
At a board meeting yesterday, the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) unanimously endorsed routes for three rapid transit corridor extensions that will provide new service to people on the city’s south side and in Skokie, a suburb north of the downtown Loop. The decision finalized the authority’s choice to extend existing rail lines rather than attempt to implement bus rapid Indian national government would finance 50% of locally-approved metro rapid transit projects in cities with more than one million inhabitants. The United States, meanwhile, has no set policy on how to finance public transportation. Jeff at the Overhead Wire pointed to the Indian parliament’s recently approved bill that will provide a 50% commitment from the national government for any metro rail projects that have received a 50% financial guarantee from their respective cities. The U.S. government, on the other hand, has been unable to establish similar uniform standards that define how new transit projects are financed. India could provide The most advantageous route isn’t the cheapest, and the federal cost-effectiveness process may therefore prevent it from being built. The Twin Cities’ Metro Council regional planning authority is in the midst of evaluating route alternatives for a new transit line extending southwest from downtown Minneapolis. The Southwest Transitway will be the region’s third light rail line after the Hiawatha line, which linked downtown Minneapolis and the airport in 2004, and the Central Corridor, which will connect downtown Minneapolis and the capital complex in St. Paul by 2014. In a series of meetings beginning
This weekend, Berliners got their first taste of a new U-Bahn line. The mile-long U55 subway links the Hauptbahnhof central station and the Brandenburg Gate at Pariser Platz, with a station in the middle underneath the German national government complex. The project’s opening is unlikely to change the commuting habits for many in the German capital, but in the long term a future Following an April vote in the House, the Senate appears to be close to allowing the Triangle and Triad to fund new transit systems. After years of controversy revolving around the regressive nature of sales tax increases, the North Carolina State Senate yesterday tentatively approved a measure that would allow citizens in the Triangle and Triad metropolitan areas the right to vote to increase their local sales taxes by a 1/2¢ on every dollar to pay for transit improvements. Mecklenburg County, which includes the state’s largest city Charlotte, has been taxing itself a similar amount since 1998 after the |
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Copyright © 2010 The Transport Politic and Yonah Freemark - All Rights Reserved |
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Yonah Freemark | 
August 19th, 2009 | 
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