Infrastructure

Your morning transportation speed-read:

San Francisco is considering renaming its airport after one of the first openly gay politicians in the U.S., who was killed while he was a member of the city's Board of Supervisors.

Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire (D), who has been mentioned as a potential replacement for Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, called for her state to focus on transportation funding and education in her final speech.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D) is pushing for a tax increase to pay for transportation projects.

Customer service agents at American Airlines voted against joining the Communication Workers of America union.

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) has unveiled a transportation funding plan that calls for eliminating the tax on gasoline purchases in his state.

Gas taxes are traditionally used by both the federal and state governments to fund transportation projects.

But McDonnell, who was considered a potential vice presidential nominee for Republicans in 2012, said his state would be better off without the 17.5 cents per gallon tax on gasoline.

To replace it, McDonnell is calling for a 0.8 percent increase in Virginia's state sales tax to generate revenue that would be dedicated to transportation.

"Declining funds for infrastructure maintenance, stagnant motor fuels tax revenues, increased demand for transit and passenger rail, and the growing cost of major infrastructure projects necessitate enhancing and restructuring the Commonwealth's transportation program and the way it is funded," McDonnell said in a statement announcing his proposal, which he said would generate $3.1 billion for transportation projects in Virginia over the next five years.

Federal Transit Administrator (FTA) Peter Rogoff told lawmakers Thursday that it would cost nearly $11 billion to repair and fortify public transportation systems that were damaged by Hurricane Sandy.

Transit systems in states like New York and New Jersey were badly damaged roads and railways by flooding when Sandy made landfall along the northeast Atlantic Ocean coast as a category 1 hurricane.

Appearing at a hearing of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs’ Housing, Transportation and Community Development Subcommittee, Rogoff said it would take $12 billion of the Obama administration’s $60 billion Sandy recovery proposal to restore transit to pre-hurricane levels.

“President Obama’s Supplemental Request for Disaster Assistance seeks $60.4 billion in federal resources for response, recovery, and mitigation [from Hurricane Sandy],” he told lawmakers.

 “The Department of Transportation’s share of the request is $12.07 billion, and of that, $11.7 billion –  the majority portion – would directly support the FTA’s effort to repair and replace the affected public transit infrastructure and make it more resilient,” he continued. 

A large majority of U.S. residents what Congress to spend more money on transportation infrastructure, according to poll conducted on behalf of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM).

The AEM, which represents companies that make the machines used in construction projects, said Wednesday that its poll showed 77 percent of American citizens are in favor of "rebuilding" or "modernization" infrastructure in the U.S.

The poll, which was conducted by the Clarus Research Group, also found that 60 percent of its respondents were not aware of the gap being the amount of money that is collected by the 18.4 cents-per-gallon gas tax that is normally used to fund transportation projects and the current levels of spending in the recently approved highway bill. 

Lawmakers in the Senate will hold a hearing this week to discuss rebuilding infrastructure that was damaged by Hurricane Sandy.

The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee's Housing, Transportation and Community Development subcommittee will meet Thursday to hear from transportation officials in New York and New Jersey about the cost of rebuilding parts of their systems that were damaged during the storm.

The hearing is latest in a series of Capitol Hill inquires into the massive storm, which badly damaged roads and railways along the East Coast with flooding.

A prominent environmental group has ranked the best and worst transportation projects in the country for the health of the U.S. environment. 

The list, from the San Francisco-based Sierra Club, is part of the the environmental group's effort to move America "beyond oil."

With that goal in mind, the Sierra Club's "good" project lists includes public transportation like the expansion of Washington, D.C.'s Metrorail subway expansion to Dulles Airport and commuter railways like Orlando, Fla.'s proposed SunRail system. Both railways are currently under construction and scheduled to begin operations in the next few years.

Officials from Amtrak and other northeast U.S. public transportation agencies briefed a Senate committee Thursday on the damage that was sustained by transit systems last month during Hurricane Sandy.

"When we look at what we really lost in terms of revenue, we're at about $30 million just in terms of the few days that we were out of business. And then direct cost to get things fixed was another $20 million," Amtrak CEO Joe Boardman told members of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee's subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety and Security.

Amtrak shut down routes in the northeast in anticipation of Sandy, as did intra-city mass transit systems in cities like Washington, D.C., Boston, Philadelphia and New York City.

Republicans on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee said Tuesday that Hurricane Sandy made the case for passing their version of a bill containing funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The discussion came during a hearing called to review of the "preparedness, response to and recovery from" the hurricane that badly damaged roads and public transit systems in several Northeastern states in late October.

House Transportation Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) said Tuesday that the House's version of the FEMA measure would have made it easier for affected states to recover from Sandy.

"We have attempted, as a committee, to make some reforms, and also deal with some of the problems we've had from past storms and natural disasters, and the House prior to ... this most recent storm, passed H.R.-2903, which was the FEMA Reauthorization Act," Mica said at the beginning of Tuesday's hearing.

"That was passed on September 19th, before the storm began, and it ... was passed specifically to deal with some of the problems we've had with previous natural disasters, and also the ability of FEMA, our emergency management organization at the federal level, to deal with some of those issues," he continued. 

Lawmakers in the House and Senate will review Hurricane Sandy's impact on Northeast U.S. transportation systems in a pair of hearings scheduled for this week. 

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will go first Tuesday morning with a review of the "preparedness, response to and recovery from" the superstorm that badly damaged roads and public transit systems in several Northeastern states. 

The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee will follow Thursday with a Sandy review of its own, which officials said would focus on the storm's "devastating impact on the nation's largest transportation systems." 

Your morning transportation speed read:

An Alameda County, California transportation sales tax referendum is heading for a recount.

Workers at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport are under investigation for allegedly egging the bus of the New Orleans Saints football team.

Dunkin' Donuts is making sure travelers are aware of its "non-traditional locations" in places like airports, train stations and bus terminals as passengers are gearing up for holiday travel.

A Nevada museum is offering visitors an opportunity to ride the train with Santa Claus.