Passenger Transport Express - 10/16/2009 (Plain Text Version)

Szabo, Other Rail Experts Testify at House Subcommittee Hearing on High-Speed Rail

The Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee of the House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee, chaired by Rep. Corrine Brown (D-CA), held a hearing on high-speed rail in the United States on Oct. 14.

"It is time for a serious and long-term commitment from the United States to move forward its vision of high-speed rail," T&I Committee Chairman James Oberstar (D-MN) said in his prepared opening statement.

Among the witnesses were Administrator Joseph Szabo of the Federal Railroad Administration; Frank Busalacchi, Wisconsin secretary of transportation and chair of the States for Passenger Rail Coalition; Patrick Simmons, North Carolina Department of Transportation Rail Division director; Thomas Carper, chairman of the board for the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak); and Michael P. Pracht, president and CEO of U.S. Railcar, LLC.

Public Transit Systems Receive $100 Million in TIGGER Grants

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) on October 13 published its final list of grantees of Transit Investments for Greenhouse Gas and Energy Reduction (TIGGER) grants. The list of 43 recipient systems with their corresponding projects and funding levels begins on page 6 of the PDF. [return to top]

APTA 2009 Annual Report Now Online

The 2009 APTA Annual Report is now available on the APTA web site. It summarizes APTA's achievements and activities in the past fiscal year. [return to top]

Save the Date: ARRA Deadline Extended

The FTA has announced that the ARRA reporting deadline for third-quarter 2009 has been extended; ARRA grantees who submitted reports by the October 10 deadline should now review those reports and revise them as necessary by October 21. Grantees that experienced technical problems submitting 1512 reports to federalreporting.gov may submit late reports until October 20. [return to top]

In the Media

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood discussed a range of subjects in an interview published in AARP Bulletin Today.

A six-month-old baby boy in Melbourne, Australia, miraculously survived with no serious injuries after his carriage rolled off a rail platform and was struck by the oncoming subway, the BBC reported.

The blog Get Energy Smart! Now!!! featured a description of the entrants in the Department of Energy's Solar Decathlon in Washington, DC. The projects featured innovations in green technologies, some of which might be adaptable to public transit facilities.

The Washington Post published a guest feature by a member of the Fairfax County (VA) Transportation Advisory Commission, on helping her son and his best friend begin taking a public transit bus to their high school. [return to top]