Transit
Streetsblog Basics
Trump’s Budget Is a Disaster for Transit, and His Infrastructure Plan Is a Gift to Wall Street
The Trump administration's fiscal year 2018 budget, released yesterday, includes severe cuts to federal transit funding. Amid this looming austerity, Trump wants to insert his infrastructure plan, which calls for $800 billion in private financing suited for building toll roads (if they're profitable) but not transit infrastructure. Next stop: Congress, which will consider the president's proposal before it passes a budget over the summer.
May 24, 2017
After 5-Month Delay, Judge Calls for Yet More Study of Maryland’s Purple Line
Facing pressure to issue a long-delayed decision on Maryland's Purple Line light rail, a federal judge has determined -- five months after he was given the additional analysis that he requested -- that the project needs even more environmental studies.
May 23, 2017
When the Going Gets Tough at the MTA, Andrew Cuomo Disappears
Remember when Andrew Cuomo announced that he'd sealed the deal on a new contract with the TWU? Or when he empaneled an "MTA Reinvention Commission" to shape the agency's five-year capital program? Or when he ordered the MTA to quit dragging its heels on cashless tolling, and the agency promptly delivered? The governor would like you to forget all that.
May 19, 2017
Don’t Judge Transit By the Gridlock on Nearby Roads
Sound Transit is beginning to build a light rail line between downtown Seattle and its booming eastern suburbs. It's expected to eventually carry 50,000 riders each day. Parts of the route will run on highways, and the expectation is that the rail line will reduce traffic congestion. This is often how transit projects are framed -- as congestion cures -- and that's a problem, says The Urbanist's Doug Trumm.
May 18, 2017
Criminal Justice Advocates Call on de Blasio to Provide Discount Fares for Poor New Yorkers
Criminal justice advocates gathered outside City Hall this morning to call on Mayor de Blasio to fund discount transit fares for poor New Yorkers.
May 17, 2017
It’s No Red Line, But These New Transit Lanes Will Speed Up Trips for Baltimore Bus Riders
Bright red bus lanes are being painted in downtown Baltimore as the city prepares to launch a revamped bus network in just over a month.
May 16, 2017
The 3 Essential Ingredients for Cooking Up Transit That People Want to Ride
With so much transportation funding going toward highways, it's tempting to support any transit investment as a step in the right direction. But not all transit investments will produce service that helps people get where they need to go.
May 15, 2017
Toronto Has a Plan to Clear the Way for Streetcars Stuck in Traffic
Toronto's busiest surface transit route could get a big upgrade as part of a year-long pilot project -- if it clears the Toronto City Council this summer.
May 15, 2017
Detroit’s Big Transit Success Story Isn’t Its New Streetcar — It’s the Buses
Today is the grand opening for the QLine, Detroit's 3.3-mile, mixed-traffic streetcar on Woodward Avenue. It's getting tons of local press attention, but TransitCenter reports that the Motor City's true transit renaissance is not due to the streetcar, but the city's successful, under-the-radar turnaround of its bus system.
May 12, 2017
Charlotte Has Better Things to Do Than Pay Consultants to Draw Fantasy Transit Maps
Kimley-Horn, a multinational consulting firm looking to plan the next phases of the Charlotte area’s rail expansion, also has ideas for new rail lines above and beyond the region’s long-term blueprint — projects that would be designed and built, naturally, by multinational consulting firms like Kimley-Horn.
May 10, 2017
