Public Transit

Your morning transportation speed-read:

San Francisco's Bay Area Transit System is bracing for another protest.

Ford and Toyota are working together on electric powertrain technology for trucks and SUVs.

The outgoing White House car czar is defending the auto bailouts of 2008 and 2009.

Southwest Airlines is preparing for its merger with AirTran Airways.

Rep. Jackie Speier suggested BART may have gone "too far" when it shut down cell service to control a protest.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

An airport in France is testing virtual boarding agents at airports.

A plane went off the runway at Tulsa International Airport.

An opponent of rail projects has been appointed to a railway board in Florida.

Chicago is considering implementing bus rapid transit.

The federal government should contribute more money to the expansion of Washington's MetroRail to Dulles International Airport in Northern Virginia, officials overseeing the project said Thursday.

The Washington Post reported that the chairwoman of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which operates both Dulles and Reagan National Airport, called this week for the federal government to provide loans of up to $1.2 million for the project. The airports authority, which is overseeing construction of the new MetroRail line to Dulles, is also asking the state of Virginia to contribute $500 million to the project.

“The federal government really needs to step up to the plate,” the paper quoted MWAA member Mame Reiley saying Wednesday.

About 700,000 U.S. households do not have access to either a car or public transportation, a study released Thursday by the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institute said.

The study, titled "Transit Access and Zero-Vehicle Households," found that Atlanta had the lowest coverage rate and the highest number of households without cars of the 100 largest cities in the country.

Public transportation covers only 68.5 percent of the metropolitan area there, while 37,634 households that have no cars are located outside of that range.

Ridership on public transit is up because of high gas prices, but people are paying more for their trips because of cutbacks in government spending, an advocacy group for transit said Wednesday.

A new report released Wednesday by the Washington-based American Public Transportation Association found that 80 percent of public transit agencies either implemented fare hikes in 2010 or are considering them now as state and local governments cut back on their funding.

According to the report, titled “Impacts of the Recession on Public Transportation Agencies,” 71 percent of public transit systems in the U.S. saw their funding from local governments either become stagnant or decrease, and 83 percent saw state governments cut back.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said he will sign a bill to require streets to be designed with non-car uses in mind too.

Immigration officials are increasing their inspections of Amtrak trains and Greyhound buses.

Tea Party leaders in Georgia are opposed to moving a vote on a proposed transportation tax.

New York's John F. Kennedy Airport experienced a record amount of rainfall.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

Flooding shut down trains near Washington's Ronald Reagan National Airport on Monday morning.

A trash facility is being blamed for birds that congregate near New York's LaGuardia Airport.

Hackers targeted the website of San Francisco's Bay Area Transit Authority.

Los Angeles officials are considering linking Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to rail.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

Airlines are reducing fare hikes as taxes that go to the Federal Aviation Administration are being reinstated.

The Broadway play "Catch Me If You Can" is coming to New York's John F. Kennedy Airport.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) has established a panel to pick the next chief of New York City's Metropolitan Transit Authority.

A transgender Transportation Security Administration worker who sued the agency for being forced to work as a man has won a settlement.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

U.S. Airways and Delta Airlines are offering refunds of money that would have been in airline ticket taxes if Congress had passed an authorization bill for the Federal Aviation Administration.

The FAA has delayed rules for pilot fatigue.

Hoboken, N.J., was named the top public-transportation city in the U.S. by Forbes.

Taxicabs in San Francisco will cost more soon.