Federal Transit Administration
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Bus Lane Rehab and Utica Ave SBS Win Federal Transit Grants
New York City was awarded nearly $50 million in federal grants to improve its bus service, the Federal Transit Administration announced today. The money will go toward both the basics, like a new radio system for buses, and new and improved bus lanes to speed service further.
July 23, 2012
FRA Chief: America Is Driving Less and Congress Needs to Catch Up
Speaking to reporters earlier today, Federal Railroad Administration chief Joe Szabo said that people are driving less and using transit more -- and that those changes are permanent. "America’s travel habits are undergoing rapid change," he said. It's a fact, he said ("not opinion -- statistically proven"), calling on Congress to show that it understands these changes by moving in a new direction.
June 4, 2012
After 30 Years of Federal Support for Transit, Battle Lines are Redrawn
Add Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff to the list of people saying that it's premature to declare victory over the House's attempts to cast transit into the abyss. Rogoff knows a thing or two about transportation bills: He was an aide on the Senate Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee for 20 years, during which time the federal government passed three long-term transportation laws.
March 13, 2012
OMB: Senate Seeking Too Much Highway Money to Fund Transportation Bill
Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) and his Finance Committee have been looking high and low for a $12 billion patch to fund the transportation reauthorization bill that passed the Senate EPW Committee a few weeks ago. According to Politico’s transportation reporters, the top Republican on the Finance Committee, Sen. Orrin Hatch, has already rejected several of Baucus’s ideas.
December 7, 2011
Feds Call “All Hands On Deck” For Detroit Transit
For the last two days, transit experts from around the country have been hunkered down in Detroit to devote their collective expertise to making the Motor City a better city for transit.
August 10, 2011
Government Shutdown Would Be a Punch in the Gut to Transit Agencies
A powwow between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, President Obama, and House Speaker John Boehner last night failed to yield a compromise that would put a budget in place before the government shuts down at midnight tonight. The failure of yet another attempt to negotiate makes a government shutdown all but inevitable.
April 8, 2011
Picture This: ARC Money + Congestion Pricing = No More NYC Transit Cuts
Later today, Governor Chris Christie is expected to announce that he's shutting down construction of the ARC tunnel for good, closing off the potential for transit-based growth in northern New Jersey for the foreseeable future. In a dark day for smart planning and development, the project to double NJ Transit's capacity to Manhattan has become a casualty of cheap-gas-at-all-costs populism.
October 27, 2010
Chris Christie Expected to Kill ARC Transit Tunnel
The largest federal transit investment in American history is on its deathbed, reports Andrea Bernstein at Transportation Nation. Three sources have told Bernstein that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is ready to pull the plug on the plan to double rail capacity under the Hudson River this week, though Christie denies his mind is made up.
October 5, 2010
FTA: Transit Maintenance — Not Just Expansion — Will Grow Ridership
Aging infrastructure across the country has become an enormous safety risk. It’s also becoming an economic hazard.
October 4, 2010
The Financial Foolishness of Christie’s ARC Gambit
Two weekends ago, construction on New Jersey's most important transit project was called to a temporary stop by Governor Chris Christie. He declared a thirty-day review period for the ARC tunnel project, which would build a new rail tunnel below the Hudson and double commuter rail capacity from New Jersey. Many worry the review is just a prelude to axing the $8.7 billion project altogether and using the money saved to patch up New Jersey's Transportation Trust Fund for a couple of years.
September 23, 2010