Public Transit

The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) said Tuesday that gains in public transit ridership are tied directly to how the U.S. economy is faring.

In places where the economy is on the uptick, APTA said in a new report, so is use of public transportation systems. Altogether, 2.7 billion public transportation trips were taken, a 1.6 percent increase from the second quarter of 2011.

APTA President Michael Melaniphy said the correlation between transit use and the economy made perfect sense.

“Since nearly 60 percent of the trips taken on public transportation are work commutes, public transit is a vital service for cities and towns nationwide,” Melaniphy said. 

The Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) is hoping to turn its members' passengers into voters in the upcoming presidential and congressional elections.

ATU International President Larry Hanley said the union, which represents public transit employees, would be launching voter-mobilization efforts in Cleveland and Denver beginning at the end of the month.

The cities are two of the largest metropolitan areas in Ohio and Colorado, which are among the most hotly contested states in the race between President Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. 

Washington, D.C.'s Metrorail subway system said Thursday that it has satisfied five of the National Transportation Safety Board's recommendations it has labored to address since a fatal 2009 train crash.

The effort to address the NTSB recommendations has caused delays associated with track work that have frustrated Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) riders in the capital area on nights and weekends.

But Metro Board Safety Committee Chair Mort Downey said Thursday that the agency has satisfied five of the NTSB's 27 outstanding recommendations.

“I am encouraged by this progress and want to commend Metro’s leadership for their hard work to make the system safer,” Downey said in a statement of the work. 

Your morning transportation speed-read: 

Employees at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport have been accused of stealing 100,000 mini-bottles of liquor. 

A type of rail car that is commonly used to haul hazardous materials appears to have a major design flaw. 

A pair of pedestrians were struck by Philadelphia's Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) trains. 

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has named one of its bomb-sniffing dogs after a victim of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.  

Sixty-six percent of Americans want Congress to spend more money on public transportation, according a poll commissioned by a prominent environmental group. 

The New York-based Natural Resources Defense Council said on Wednesday that its survey of 800 U.S. residents showed more Americans support increased public transportation construction than building more roads and highways. 

“Americans hate traffic and love transit,” said Peter Lehner, NRDC’s executive director. “Investing in public transportation eases congestion, but for too long most federal funding has limited people’s choices, leaving them sitting in traffic.”

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The platform expected to be approved by Democrats on Tuesday lauds President Obama for the auto industry bailout and for implementing a new gas mileage standard.

The platform also calls for a longer transportation funding plan than the two-year, $105 billion highway bill that was recently approved by Congress.

The more than 25,000-word platform is expected to be ratified when the Democratic Party convenes the first day of its convention in Charlotte, N.C., on Tuesday.

The Republican Party's platform, which was approved last week, took whacks at Amtrak and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), but the Democratic platform focuses on the $80 billion that was loaned to General Motors and Chrysler in 2008 and 2009, arguing the assistance saved the U.S. auto industry.

"President Obama and the Democrats boldly rescued America’s auto industry, saving more than one million jobs, preventing the collapse of the industry’s supply chain, and shoring up countless communities, while revitalizing the backbone of America’s manufacturing sector," the Democratic platform says.

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President Obama’s administration is telling states with public transportation systems to get ready for more oversight from the federal government.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Federal Transit Authority (FTA) Administrator Peter Rogoff wrote a letter to the governors of 26 states that have public transportation systems operating in them explaining new authority given to the federal government to regulate transit agencies by the recently approved $105 billion surface transportation bill.

“Under MAP-21, we’re ushering in a new era for transit safety, and we are committed to working with our state leaders to strengthen and help fund robust state safety oversight agencies to carry out this vitally important mission,” LaHood wrote. “Public transit remains one of the safest ways to travel in the U.S., and we intend to keep it that way.”

Construction of a new subway line in New York City was interrupted Tuesday by an explosion, according to news reports.

The New York Times reported that an explosion in an under-construction tunnel on the long-planned subway line on New York's Second Avenue in Manhattan that was supposed to be controlled went awry on Tuesday.

The result was damage above ground, the paper said, but no injuries were reported. 

House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) visited the headquarters of the Washington, D.C. area's subway system, MetroRail, on Friday.

Hoyer, who represents a suburban Maryland district in close proximity to the capital city, tweeted a picture of himself and Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) General Manager Richard Sarles.

WMATA has come under fire for its performance in recent year, particularly from lawmakers who represent Maryland and Northern Virginia.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and elected officials from Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., said Tuesday that the authority that oversees the capital region's airports is in dire need of reform.

The Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority oversees Washington's Reagan Washington National Airport and Dulles International Airport, both of which were formerly managed by the Federal Aviation Administration. The airport authority is also in charge of construction of a $6 billion extension of the Washington area's Metrorail subway system to Dulles airport, one of the largest transportation projects under construction in the country.

But LaHood, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R), Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) and D.C. Mayor Vince Gray (D) said Tuesday that they had "serious doubts about the ability of the [MWAA] to competently promote, protect and manage the airports and other transportation activities.

"We are gravely concerned with the lack of accountability, transparency and sound judgment that has come to light regarding the board's recent activities," the leaders wrote in a letter to MWAA Chairman Michael Curto.

"It has become clear that the MWAA's policies and procedures are deficient and lack the safeguards necessary to ensure the principled oversight of nationally and regionally significant assets," they continued. "The board needs to restore the confidence of its appointing officials and the public."