Public Transit

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Tuesday that $787 million in grants for public transportation announced this week by the Department of Transportation "will go a long way toward helping transit agencies across the nation modernize and repair their buses and related facilities to bring these systems into a state of good repair."

The grants, announced this week by the Federal Transit Administration, will go to State of Good Repair and Bus Livability programs, LaHood said.

"While we need to continue to invest in the new transportation projects that will help our economy grow, we also need to make sure we protect, preserve, and rebuild the transportation system we already have," LaHood said in a blog post on the DOT's website. 

Your morning transportation speed-read:

An Air Force cargo plane landed at Tampa's Peter Knight Airport instead of MacDill Air Force Base.

Also in Florida, ridership on the Walt Disney World airport shuttle in Orlando has declined.

New York City is increasing security on its buses and subway trains to catch fare-evaders.

Cadillac is trying to end BMW and Mercedes-Benz's recent dominance of the U.S. luxury car market.

Most of the world will be watching the Olympic Games when they begin in earnest at the end of the week in London, but transportation observers will be keeping an eye on how the city’s public transit systems and airports hold up.

Officials in London have expressed concern in recent weeks about whether London’s Heathrow International Airport, the city’s bus systems and railways are ready to handle the increase in passengers that is expected with the Olympics.

Already, reports have emerged about long airport immigration lines and buses carrying athletes from long international flights getting lost.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

A transportation group in New Jersey is accusing the state of shifting too many dollars from trains to highway construction.

Officials in London are downplaying concerns about the readiness of the city's public transportation systems for the 2012 Olympics.

The development of a proposed rail line at Delhi, India's, International Airport has not gone according to plan.

Rolls-Royce is testing a new jet engine at the Tucson International Airport in Arizona.

Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski touted an increase in federal oversight over municipal public transportation systems on Monday.

"Headed 2 press conference on my new federal safety standards for metro," Mikulski tweeted Monday afternoon.

"New safety standards will help identify problems, fix them, ensure they don't happen again," the long-term Maryland senator followed up in subsequent tweet. 

The comments followed a pair of weekend shutdowns for the Metrorail subway system in Washington, D.C., that officials said were caused by computer failures. Trains were held in place in the system for about 30 minutes on two separate occasions after a glitch prevented Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) from accounting for the location of trains within the system. 

Your morning transportation speed-read:

A Egyptian couple has been accused of hiding a baby in their carry-on luggage on a flight from the United Arab Emirates.

Amtrak is proposing 37-minute high-speed rail trips between New York and Philadelphia.

The air traffic control tower at Newark's Liberty International Airport was evacuated after smoke was found in an elevator shaft.

Massachusetts "Big Dig" is projected to cost the state $24.3 billion.

Lawmakers in California and officials in Northern Virginia have OK'd railways identified by the Obama administration as critical transportation projects.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

The number of airport art galleries is on the rise.

The union for janitors at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport is fighting the city’s mayor, Rahm Emanuel, over a new contract.

The Republican who provided the decisive vote in favor of Washington, D.C.’s MetroRail expansion to Dulles Airport has provided an explanation of his decision.

California is seeing an uptick in the number of electric cars driving on its roads.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood praised officials in northern Virginia Tuesday for approving a long-sought expansion of Washington, D.C.'s MetroRail subway to Dulles International Airport.

The Washington Post reported Tuesday that the proposed railway was approved by Loudoun County's Board of Supervisors by a vote of 5-4 to contribute $270 million to the construction of the railway and pay more than $10 million per year for its operations.

The approval represents the final clearance for a project the Obama administration has touted as one of the most important transportation endeavors in the country. An earlier hurdle was cleared when officials in the state of Virginia agreed this spring to make a $150 million contribution of its own after a protracted fight about labor rules for the project.

A Republican lawmaker from New York has filed a bill to make the tax benefit given to people who use public transportation systems to get to work equal to the one given to workers who drive.

The benefit allows commuters to sent aside a specified amount of their paychecks per month from the deductible income on their taxes for their trips to work. It had been $230 for commuters who traveled using public transportation until the beginning of 2012, while parking benefits were increased to $240 this year.

Rep. Nan Hayworth (R-N.Y.) said this week that it was not fair to give people who choose not to drive less of a reward then people who contribute to traffic congestion.

"I’m introducing the Commuter Savings Act to provide our mass-transit users with the same benefits that drivers now receive,” Hayworth said in a statement released this week by her office.  "Times are tough, and I want to do all I can to save our constituents’ hard-earned dollars.”