The House and Senate have approved a $1.07 trillion omnibus appropriations measure that the president is expected to sign. Within this bill—the Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 Departments of Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Related Agencies (THUD) Appropriations, which includes all discretionary funding for DOT—is $10.7 billion for public transit programs: an all-time high, representing an increase of more than $500 million over FY 2009. In addition, $2.5 billion in grants is provided to support intercity rail service and high-speed rail corridors within the programs of the Federal Railroad Association. [More]

Rail transit safety is a significant issue on Capitol Hill, with a focus on funding infrastructure. The House held a recent hearing to look at the federal role in ensuring public transit safety; the Senate called its own hearing to consider the Obama administration’s proposal to overhaul safety regulation of the nation's subway and light-rail systems. [More]

APTA is among the signatories of a letter to President Barack Obama from Scott F. Belcher, president of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America, thanking the president for his support of creating jobs through the modernization of the nation’s transportation and communications infrastructure. [More]

APTA joins all its members in wishing Passenger Transport’s readers a happy holiday season. [More]

 Metro Transit in Minneapolis/St. Paul celebrated the completion of its Hiawatha Light Rail Line with the Dec. 12 opening of the final station, American Boulevard Station, in Bloomington, MN. [More]

With high unemployment, significant decreases in gasoline prices, and less state and local revenue available for public transportation operations, U.S. public transit ridership declined by 3.8 percent in the first nine months of 2009 compared to record levels in the same period last year. Trip numbers on all major modes—bus, light rail, heavy rail, and commuter rail—declined; paratransit (demand-response) and trolleybus, however, saw increases. [More]

The Regional Transportation District (RTD) Board of Directors in Denver voted Dec. 15 to name Phillip Washington its new general manager and chief executive officer. He has served in this post on an interim basis since General Manager Cal Marsella stepped down in July. [More]

The Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) has announced the promotion of 20-year MTA employee Ralign T. Wells to the position of administrator. He succeeds Paul J. Wiedefeld, who is assuming a leadership role at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport. [More]

Carlos C. Villarreal, 85, of Rockville, MD, who served in the Nixon administration as the first head of the Urban Mass Transportation Administration, now the Federal Transit Administration, died Dec. 14. [More]

Stephen T. Parry, 59, a transportation planner who began his career while a student at Occidental College in Los Angeles, died Nov. 29 of complications from a hemorrhagic stroke. [More]

To quote Dickens in reference to last year: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” [More]

Who knows the many benefits of public transportation? The readers of Passenger Transport certainly do. But do they take full advantage of the stories they have to share about those benefits? [More]

The past year has been a notable one for public transportation, both for issues facing the industry and the legislative steps taken in response. [More]

As much as any year in recent memory, 2009 saw the emergence of new directions in transportation policy: high-speed rail as a national priority; increasing attention to climate change; new directions put forth by the Obama administration; and the need to align APTA’s governance and committee structure with long-term changes. [More]

The year now ending was a noteworthy one for the opening of new rail transit systems. [More]

One of APTA’s key efforts has been to bring together public transit agencies, business members, and the federal government to write consensus-based and voluntary standards for the industry. These standards are designed to improve safety, reliability, performance, and efficiency of agency operations and equipment. [More]

 What a difference a year makes. To the Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon (TriMet), 2008 brought record ridership and, at times, too much of a good thing. Buses and trains were overcrowded and agencies did not have enough revenues to expand service to meet the demand. [More]

The year 2009 was challenging for everyone at the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District (MTD) and, fortunately, everyone was up to the challenge. [More]

The Small Urban & Rural Transit Center (SURTC) at North Dakota State University is helping small transit agencies address high fuel prices, economic concerns, changing demographics, and other factors that are having significant impacts on their systems. [More]

This year, the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority (SFRTA) celebrated the 20th anniversary of Tri-Rail, marking a major milestone in the history of an organization that was put into service as a five-year traffic mitigation project. We also celebrated the fact that, for the first time in its history, Tri-Rail carried more than four million passengers in one 12-month calendar cycle. [More]

Sound Transit in Seattle achieved a major milestone this year in its development of a regional multi-modal transit system with the July opening of the Central Link Light Rail line. The line connects downtown Seattle with Tukwila, WA, 13.9 miles to the south; a 1.7-mile segment between Tukwila and Sea-Tac International Airport opened Dec. 19. [More]

Here are some scenes from 2009 events of importance to the public transportation community, as they were covered by Passenger Transport. [More]

For Palm Tran, 2009 represents a year of project completions, service implementations, new beginnings, and increased ridership. The agency has celebrated grand openings, ribbon cuttings, and ridership rebounds—all while working to increase the availability of public transportation in Palm Beach County. [More]

This was a productive, eventful year for New Jersey Transit Corporation (NJ TRANSIT). Throughout 2009, the agency advanced several expansion projects, service enhancements, and customer service initiatives under the leadership of its board of directors. [More]

Over the past year, the public transportation industry said goodbye to transit agency chief executives and board chairs, a former U.S. secretary of transportation, an influential conservative leader and outspoken transit booster, and long-time transit professionals. Here’s how they were remembered in the pages of Passenger Transport. [More]

The Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) reported a very active year in 2009, publishing 26 reports: 10 research reports, two legal research digests, five research results documents, two syntheses, and seven web-only documents. [More]

Who knew that a pile of recycled bus maps could be transformed into a wintry forest of elegant birch trees? Or that discarded plastic shopping bags could be shredded to look like freshly fallen snow? And who would think of taking eight tiny toy buses, outfitting them with reindeer horns, and launching them into the air, connected to some kind of invisible sleigh? [More]

Pierce Transit in Lakewood, WA, provided transportation to 8,000 police officers and firefighters attending the Dec. 8 memorial service at the Tacoma Dome for four members of the Lakewood Police Department killed Nov. 29. [More]

The Eno Transportation Foundation has extended the nomination deadline for the 2010 Eno Transit Executive Seminar until Jan. 11, 2010. Two sessions are available, each limited to 25 students: April 18-23 in Salt Lake City and July 18-23 in Washington. [More]

“We cannot maximize the benefits of intermodal transit unless the systems are in good repair,” said Victor Mendez, administrator of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), Dec. 8 at APTA’s monthly Transportation Tuesday session—the first time an FHWA administrator spoke in the APTA offices in Washington, DC. [More]