NATIONAL NEWS
Governing: Congressional Inaction on Road Funding Hits the States
http://www.governing.com/news/headlines/gov-congressional-gridlock-on-road-funding-hits-home.html
Around the country, state transportation leaders are marking their calendars for July, when federal money for highways and other transportation projects could dry up without congressional intervention. In a handful of states, though, the day of reckoning is coming even sooner. Tennessee has already scaled back its plans for the summer. It has an $8.5 billion backlog in projects, so its Transportation Department decided to stop engineering work on all new construction.
NPR: Japan May Send Maglev Train Expertise To U.S., Without A Fee
The technology behind Japan's magnetically levitated train system, which whooshes passengers to their destinations at speeds topping 300 mph, could come to the U.S. without a traditional license fee, according to Japanese media outlets.
The Hill: Lawmakers call for fix to highway fund using one-time revenue
Ahead of debate over a new highway funding bill this year, Reps. John Delaney (D-Md.) and Mike Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) say Congress should use repatriated revenue to fill the Highway Trust Fund's coffers.
Washington Post: The world’s cities are gobbling up land faster than they’re gaining people
Throughout the last two centuries, cities across the globe – as you might view them from space – have expanded in a relatively uniform way: first incrementally, then at a breakneck speed.
Fast Company: How Drones And Driverless Cars Raise Questions For The Future Of City Services
Technology developments will enhance our urban experience, but they also risk leaving more people behind. The city of the future must be a city for everyone.
Transportation Alternatives: The Sit Down: DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg
http://transalt.org/news/magazine/2014/Spring/10
First off: Congratulations Commissioner Trottenberg. What was it like to get the call from the Mayor’s team? How did that process unfold?
Thank you. It was a thrill and an honor. The process happened quite quickly. Certainly it was a job I was interested in, and I was lucky enough to have some great supporters, the folks from the advocate community among them. And I knew First Deputy [Tony] Shorris from the Port Authority, and I was lucky enough to know my three predecessors in this job, Janette, Iris and Lee Sander, so I got to meet with Tony a few days before Inauguration Day, then spoke with the Mayor shortly after. And my appointment was announced on New Year’s Eve. It really was a whirlwind couple of weeks.
STATE NEWS
Grist: Montreal, Boston, NYC: Which city has the best bikeshare program?
My life as a bikeshare tourist began three years ago. Before, whenever I visited a new city, I felt like it was hard to get a sense of the local geography. Traveling by subway was fast and provided an excellent opportunity to check out what other people were reading. But the experience of going down into the subway and reappearing in a different location was disconcerting. I felt like I was teleporting, or a prairie dog.
Boston Globe: Data-driven bus service set to roll out
Imagine a mass transit system that could figure out on a daily basis where people are and where they want to go, and then get them there — nonstop — on luxury buses for just a few dollars more than a T ride costs.
Newsday: LIRR: Expect train cancellations, delays during evening rush
Long Island Rail Road customers coped with cancellations on 16 eastbound trains and delays on as many as 19 during the Monday evening rush while westbound service was temporarily suspended between Jamaica and Penn Station and between Woodside and Penn, according to LIRR officials.
The Star-Ledger: Light traffic in Jersey City on first weekday of Pulaski Skyway shutdown
Jersey City officials gathered before dawn today at the city's Summit Avenue emergency management headquarters to respond to traffic problems related to the Pulaski Skyway shutdown.
POLITICO MORNING TRANSPORTATION
By Adam Snider | 4/15/14 5:52 AM EDT
Featuring Kathryn A. Wolfe
FOXX TAKES IT ON THE ROAD: Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx’s bus tour continues to drive south today, starting in Louisville and ending the day in Atlanta. In between, he’ll visit a project to build two new bridges across the Ohio River, tour the UPS global operation center and visit I-40/65 in Nashville. Track the trip with a handy interactive map: http://1.usa.gov/1hmnLfu
Dispatch from Kathryn: “During a tour of a Siemens manufacturing facility where workers are building new electric motors for trains running on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, a gaggle of roughly 25 officials — including Foxx and yours truly — wandered past an obvious break or lunch area where several plant employees were eating. One of them looked up and said ‘Whoa! We’re outnumbered here.’ Maybe outnumbered, but probably not outgunned, if the NRA sticker on this toolbox is to be believed…” Kathryn will be will Foxx again today, so Pros can expect more updates from the field.
HIGHWAY TRUST FUND UPDATE COMING TODAY: Today the DOT will update its projections for the Highway Trust Fund, which will effectively serve as yet another warning ahead of the fund’s pending insolvency in about three months. The last monthly update estimated that the highway account will run short on money in July — and that’s a few weeks earlier than the previous month’s prediction. Stay tuned for the new figures from DOT posting today: http://1.usa.gov/1eKPPqC
STORIES FROM THE ROAD — Lockborne, Ohio: “Ringed by heavy equipment and fighting sporadic rain, Anthony Foxx rolled out a populist argument Monday for pressing Congress into action on a long-term transportation bill. ‘When Congress doesn’t decide who should pay for transportation, the person who pays is you,’ the transportation secretary said during the first stop on his eight-state pro-infrastructure bus tour. He pointed out that waiting to start infrastructure projects only costs more. And he noted that traffic jams and poor road conditions hit Americans in the pocketbook every day, saying potholes and congestion means $212 of wear and tear per year for every Ohio driver. ‘By contrast, we Americans are putting about $100 per person into the federal highway system,’ he said. ‘That’s not a great deal — $100 in, and $212 on top of that into your car.’” Pros get it all: http://politico.pro/1eCxUFC
Norwood, Ohio: “It’s not quite Ray LaHood’s ‘high-speed rail is coming to America’ pitch, but … Foxx took up the case for rail spending at a plant that’s manufacturing new electric motors for Amtrak. ‘This plant was built at the turn of the 19th century when railroads symbolized America’s revolution in technology,’ Foxx said in a speech set amid enormous motor housings spiked with huge copper coils at the plant owned by Germany-based conglomerate Siemens. ‘Today, rail is helping once again lead a new era of American innovation.’ First opened in 1898, the Siemens facility is one of the oldest continuously operating plants in America. Siemens isn’t the plant’s original owner, but the facility has always manufactured motors.” http://politico.pro/1kVmjEm
If words and pictures aren’t enough: Here’s a short video of Foxx at one of yesterday’s stops, shot by Kathryn. POLITICO: http://politi.co/1n7HK4Q
GOOD MORNING. IT’S TUESDAY, APRIL 15. Thanks for reading POLITICO’s Morning Transportation, your daily tipsheet on trains, planes, automobiles and ports, where on this date in 1850, the city of San Francisco — where your regular morning host will fly to this evening — was incorporated. Please be in touch: asnider@politico.com and @AdamKSnider on Twitter.
“You sing a song while sitting at a red light…” http://bit.ly/QlXJ1r (h/t Phil Weiser)
PROGRAMMING NOTE: I’m taking a break and transporting myself out to San Francisco and Portland, Ore., for a week-long vacation, so please send me your favorite craft beer bar or offbeat must-do activity in either city. Kevin Robillard is taking over for the first few days — send all your news, tips, scoops and more to krobillard@politico.com.
WHY AMTRAK BOARDS THE WAY IT DOES: Vox’s launch-day article (http://bit.ly/1hS5TZw) about how Amtrak boards trains at the busiest Northeast Corridor stations sure prompted a lot of reactions — and most of the ones MT got were from people agreeing that the boarding process is absurd but saying the shortcuts were common knowledge. But MT figured Amtrak had something to say, so here it is: “Amtrak acknowledges that opportunities exist to improve the passenger experience when boarding trains at some of our stations,” Amtrak senior communications officers Craig Schulz wrote to MT. “Our primary concern is, and always will be, the safety of our passengers. Many platforms — in New York for example — are very narrow. Allowing hundreds of people unfettered access to a confined space in close proximity to moving trains could compromise safety, which we just won’t do.”
KEY NEXTGEN COMPONENT TOTALLY FINISHED: With increased calls for better plane-tracking tools as the Malaysia Airlines plane remains missing, the FAA announced yesterday the nationwide installation of a new technology designed to do give both controllers and pilots more information. Part of the broader NextGen air traffic control upgrade, the agency said the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) radio system “provides more accurate aircraft location information than the current radar system.” ADS-B is being used in 100 of the nation’s 230 air traffic control facilities and should be running in all of them by 2019, the FAA said. More from the FAA: http://1.usa.gov/1qAyvte
DOT TO OFFER UPDATE OF TRUCK WEIGHT STUDY: Tucked into today’s Federal Register is an otherwise boring announcement of a public meeting on a DOT study on how truck size and weight affect safety. The Federal Highway Administration will “provide an update on the progress” of a study mandated by the 2012 transportation law. That might sound bureaucratic and boring, but the fight over that study is anything but. The feud is always simmering, but with a new bill coming before Congress soon, things have boiled over. Railroad and trucking groups are already trading barbs on the issue, and there are a slew of other groups working on either side of the issue.
A Transportation Research Board paper (http://bit.ly/1qgP0uq) earlier this month found some inherent problems with the basis of the study, saying that the “primary difficulties in projecting the consequences of changes in truck size and weight limits are that the available methods have significant weaknesses and that uncertainties that are small in absolute terms,” among other things. The FHWA meeting — by webinar, so expect plenty of participants — is on May 6 at 1 p.m. More in the Register: http://1.usa.gov/1hFDLuc
MAILBAG — Can’t we all just get along? The National Retail Federation wants to ensure that West Coast ports and their workers come to agreement on a new labor contract well before the July 30 deadline. “The contract negotiations come at a critical time as peak season shipments for the Christmas and holiday season will begin in July,” NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay wrote the leaders of the two sides. Download a PDF of the letter: http://bit.ly/1jFITgy
It’s all about chemistry: The American Chemistry Council and several other groups representing rail shippers have written House T&I and Surface Transportation Board leaders about the STB’s upcoming hearing on competitive switching. “We believe there are common sense regulatory reforms that are consistent with the governing statute and deserve consideration to help address this growing problem,” the five groups wrote. Read it: http://bit.ly/1ijyRBQ
THE AUTOBAHN (SPEED READ)
- GM announces its PR head is leaving; it’s due to the transition to new CEO Mary Barra, not the pending recall and investigation. Automotive News: http://bit.ly/1iQsO4p
- Another N.J. commissioner on the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey quits, the second in less than three weeks. Asbury Park Press: http://on.app.com/1p4rmUx
- Thanks to the cherry blossoms, Metro reports its highest Saturday ridership since 2010’s “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear.” WMATA: http://bit.ly/1jFHKFz
- Pro transpo team alum Jessica Meyers on what Google’s purchase of drone manufacturer Titan Aerospace means. POLITICO: http://politi.co/1p58eWI
- “Tron” lovers, rejoice. Glow-in-the-dark roads are here. BBC: http://bbc.in/1kVmYp9
- The intriguing saga of Bixi, which supplies Capital Bikeshare, New York’s Citi Bike and other programs. Atlantic Cities: http://bit.ly/1l060BQ
- FAA proposes a fine of nearly $550K for Hawaiian Airlines for operating a Boeing 737 that didn’t comply with an order on “certain engine thrust reverser components.” Release: http://1.usa.gov/1qAFNgA
- London hedge fund manager finds a way to beat the subway fare system, pays the $72,000 due after being caught. CNBC: http://cnb.cx/1n7gAev (h/t Matt Daily)
- POLITICO alum Jon Allen’s book on Hillary Clinton spurs follow-up story — “For Hillary Clinton and Boeing, a beneficial relationship.” Washington Post: http://wapo.st/1m4bUWr
THE DAY AHEAD: All day — Secretary Foxx travels to Louisville, Ky., and Nashville, Tenn., on the “Commit to the Future” bus tour highlight the importance of transportation investment in America, April 14-18.
9 a.m. — FAA Administrator Michael Huerta speaks at the National Business Aviation Association’s Asian Business Aviation Conference & Exhibition. Shanghai, China.
THE COUNTDOWN: MAP-21 expires and DOT funding runs out in 169 days. FAA policy is up in 534 days. The mid-term elections are in 203 days and the 2016 presidential election is in 938 days.
CABOOSE — Can you guess the Metro stop? The differences between some Metro stations are subtle — take two minutes and quiz yourself with these pictures of Metro stations that you should be able to identify by key features. Greater Greater Washington: http://bit.ly/1ik39o6
POLITICO PROCAST, EXCLUSIVE FOR PROS: Every Monday, POLITICO Pro hosts a podcast specifically for Pro subscribers — a Procast — exploring the week’s hottest policy issues. This week Technology Editor Eric Nelson dives into patent reform legislation, the Comcast-Time Warner deal and cybersecurity with members of the Pro Technology team: http://politico.pro/1m3PcLC
Stories from POLITICO Pro
Foxx: Congress needs ‘courage’ on spending
Foxx pitches rail spending at Ohio plant
Procast: Patent reform, cable deal
Foxx: Congress needs ‘courage’ on spending back
By Kathryn A. Wolfe | 4/14/14 12:32 PM EDT
LOCKBOURNE, Ohio — Ringed by heavy equipment and fighting sporadic rain, Anthony Foxx rolled out a populist argument Monday for pressing Congress into action on a long-term transportation bill.
“When Congress doesn’t decide who should pay for transportation, the person who pays is you,” the transportation secretary said during the first stop on his eight-state pro-infrastructure bus tour.
He pointed out that waiting to start infrastructure projects only costs more. And he noted that traffic jams and poor road conditions hit Americans in the pocketbook every day, saying potholes and congestion means $212 of wear and tear per year for every Ohio driver.
“By contrast, we Americans are putting about $100 per person into the federal highway system,” he said. “That’s not a great deal — $100 in, and $212 on top of that into your car.”
Foxx’s first stop was at the site of the Pickaway East-West Connector, in a town outside Columbus with barely more than 200 residents. The site was mostly rocks and dirt muddied by rain, a stone’s throw across a road from modest homes.
But when it’s finished, the connector will serve as the crucial “last mile” of a multistate freight corridor linking the airport and a facility that connects different modes of transportation — for instance, where a truck could offload freight onto a train, or a train could offload freight onto a plane. The connector project is being realized with $16 million in TIGER grant money from DOT.
Appearing with Foxx was Michael Coleman, the Democratic mayor of Columbus, along with Ohio Transportation Director Jerry Wray and Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio).
He also made a plea for constituents in the battleground state of Ohio to call their politicians and demand action.
“That’s why we’re out in America on the bus,” Foxx said. “Because you have an opportunity to make our members of Congress and our leaders understand why this is such a crucial issue for every American family and every American business. These are your roads. These are your bridges and frankly, it is your Congress.”
Foxx said he’s still optimistic that a long-term solution is within reach, saying that “Democrats and Republicans want to solve this puzzle.” But he suggested that members of Congress need their backbones stiffened by voters.
“They need the courage that only you, the American people, can give them,” he said. “Absent that, our leaders will continue having trouble coalescing on a solution.”
Foxx had originally hoped to stop at a project to replace a twin-span bridge that carries Interstate 71 over the Little Miami River, but it was scrubbed from his schedule.
He will visit a project in Dayton to upgrade a piece of I-75 that’s removing some lefthand ramps, improving spacing and increasing capacity with the addition of a third lane on both sides of the freeway. The $381 million project received $180 million in federal money.
Foxx will round out the day with a visit to a Siemens manufacturing facility that’s building traction motors for 70 electric locomotives that will be used on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor.back
Foxx pitches rail spending at Ohio plant back
By Kathryn A. Wolfe | 4/14/14 6:57 PM EDT
NORWOOD, Ohio — It’s not quite Ray LaHood’s “high-speed rail is coming to America” pitch, but on Monday, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx took up the case for rail spending at a plant that’s manufacturing new electric motors for Amtrak.
“This plant was built at the turn of the 19th century when railroads symbolized America’s revolution in technology,” Foxx said in a speech set amid enormous motor housings spiked with huge copper coils at the plant owned by Germany-based conglomerate Siemens. “Today, rail is helping once again lead a new era of American innovation.”
First opened in 1898, the Siemens facility is one of the oldest continuously operating plants in America. Siemens isn’t the plant’s original owner, but the facility has always manufactured motors.
Now, the plant is focused on manufacturing new electric motors that will eventually replace those in locomotives that run on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, as well as some Keystone service.
Amtrak was able to purchase the 70 new motors because of a $562 million DOT loan.
“Part of the challenge with rail is our national commitment,” Foxx said. “We haven’t as a general matter made the kinds of investments that have enabled us to strengthen our resolve and to create the kind of passenger connections that we need.”
He offered up Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor as an example “of what’s possible when we have the assets in place to build a very strong, connected passenger rail system.”
“We have to continue working as a country toward that, and that’s part of the president’s commitment to expanding passenger rail as evidenced by the investments made” as part of the stimulus.
Foxx also referenced money for rail contained in President Barack Obama’s fiscal 2015 budget, and the transportation reauthorization proposal that Foxx has said will soon be released. But conspicuously gone are references to “high-speed rail,” which has become somewhat of a political albatross.
Instead, Foxx — and the budget — now refer to “high-performance rail.”
He also again linked transportation investments and jobs, saying it was evident “in a facility like this just how real it is.”
And Foxx continued the theme of his first day of appearances on the road: Congress must act, and that will only happen with pressure from voters.
“I come to Ohio to make the case that what you see here is not an accident. The jobs that have been created, the lives that have been changed, the products that are being built and the way they’re moving around this country is part and parcel of what makes America so strong for investment,” he said.
He closed by saying his “message to you is if there are bridges you want to get done, roads you want to get done, highways you want to get done, transit you want to get done, … we’ve got to get Congress thinking past our noses.”back
Procast: Patent reform, cable deal back
By POLITICO Pro staff | 4/14/14 5:43 PM EDT
After a mad dash on Capitol Hill last week before recess, there is plenty to discuss on the technology policy front. The back and forth continues with patent reform legislation, and the regulatory process behind the Comcast-Time Warner Cable deal is just kicking into gear. Meanwhile, Heartbleed and cybersecurity information-sharing are grabbing headlines. POLITICO Pro's Technology Editor Eric Nelson dives into these issues in this week’s podcast with the Pro Technology team’s Alex Byers, Jessica Meyers, Erin Mershon and Brooks Boliek.back