There was much activity on Capitol Hill this week as two Congressional committees held press conferences focused on public transportation and opportunities for job creation, and as Congress began to discuss the possibility of a second round of stimulus funding, with the target almost solely to create jobs. APTA participated in both press events on Dec. 2, spotlighting how investment in transportation results in jobs, and citing a survey that called for investing $15 billion in public transportation to support and create hundreds of thousands of jobs and stimulate the economy. [More]

The Obama administration’s Livability Initiative—a joint venture of DOT, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)—has made available $280 million for such urban circulator projects as streetcars, buses, and bus facilities. [More]

Community Transit in Snohomish County, WA, welcomed the first bus rapid transit service in Washington State, known as Swift, with a public celebration Nov. 29. Regular weekday service along the 17-mile line began at 5 a.m. Nov. 30. [More]

On Nov. 23, DOT Secretary Ray LaHood authorized the establishment of a Federal Advisory Committee to address transit safety issues. The Transit Rail Advisory Committee for Safety (TRACS) will consist of up to 25 voting members who will provide recommendations regarding transit safety and other issues to the secretary through Federal Transit Administrator Peter M. Rogoff. [More]

New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) reopened the northbound side of MTA New York City Transit’s Cortlandt Street subway station on the R and W lines, adjacent to the World Trade Center site in lower Manhattan, on Nov. 25. [More]

New Jersey Transit Corporation (NJ Transit) has announced that it has become the first passenger railroad to participate in the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA) “Close Call” Project, a safety pilot program designed to give rail employees the ability to voluntarily and anonymously report “close call” incidents that could have resulted in an accident but did not. [More]

Federal Transit Administrator Peter M. Rogoff will participate in the quarterly webinar designed for APTA’s transit board members Wednesday, Dec. 9. It will run for an hour, beginning at 1 p.m. Eastern time. [More]

Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB) has announced that George J. Pierson will assume the post of chief executive officer on Jan. 1, 2010. He succeeds Keith J. Hawksworth, who will become PB chairman. [More]

The Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority’s (RTA) Northwest Transit Center in Dayton, OH, is now a multimodal facility, providing intercity bus service as the new official depot for Greyhound Lines Inc. Greyhound operates 17 buses each day through Dayton. [More]

The Greensboro Transit Authority (GTA) in Greensboro, NC, commemorated Rosa Parks’ 1955 refusal to move to the back of a city bus in Montgomery, AL, with the Rosa Parks Bus Tour on Dec. 1—the 54th anniversary of the act, which spurred a bus boycott of more than a year and was a pivotal event in the civil rights movement. [More]

The SunLine Transit Agency in Thousand Palms, CA, collected almost eight tons of food for Martha’s Village and Kitchen, a nonprofit organization providing human and social services to persons in need, during its annual “Fill the Bus” drive on Nov. 19. [More]

Starting in January 2010, the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART) will make $50 BART tickets available on a complimentary basis to military personnel on leave from Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. [More]

The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) recently installed100 Automated External Defibrillator (AED) units throughout the system as part of its “Project Jumpstart” program, designed to help save lives by using early defibrillation in case of sudden cardiac arrest. [More]

The Charlotte (NC) Area Transit System (CATS) recently introduced Sprinter, an enhanced bus service that connects the Charlotte Transportation Center (CTC) with Charlotte Douglas International Airport. [More]

The Alexandria Transit Company (ATC) in Alexandria, VA, opened its new, 160,000-square-foot DASH Maintenance, Operations, and Administration Facility at dedication ceremonies Nov. 21. The transit agency named the facility in memory of William B. Hurd, the first chairman of the ATC Board of Directors, who served in the post for 23 years and died in 2008 at the age of 93. [More]

In preparation for the coming flu season, the Paducah Area Transit System (PATS) in Paducah, KY, hosted a flu shot clinic for the public as well as PATS employees. [More]

The same story is occurring across the country. Newspapers, television, and radio stations are compacting, laying off, folding. Just when taxpayers need credible media to decipher what tax dollars are buying and why, a black hole is forming where reliable information used to be.

To help the public understand complex transportation issues, Los Angeles Metro launched “The Source” in October—and, through it, is making strides toward becoming its own media source. [More]

The nation’s unemployment rate is at its highest level in 26 years, 10.2 percent, so policymakers are searching for ways to stimulate the economy again. The hottest proposition so far is the federal transportation bill. [More]

The APTA Business Member Board of Governors (BMBG) will hold its first business member meeting of 2010 Jan. 20-22 at the Ihilani Hotel in Ko Olina, HI. [More]

APTA invites call center personnel at member public transit systems to register by Dec. 18 for the third annual Call Center Challenge, a national competition to determine the best in the industry. The competition defines these individuals as employees who successfully handle incoming calls relating to trip planning and/or customer service issues with grace and good humor. [More]

APTA just released a report, The Case for Business Investment in Public Transportation, that examines issues critical to private investors as they consider investments or future expansion into the public transportation industry. [More]

The American Public Transportation Foundation (APTF) is conducting a special fund drive with the goal of raising $10,000 by Dec. 31. [More]