NATIONAL NEWS
Washington Post: In aftermath of derailment, D.C. officials turn focus to CSX and its cargo
A day after a CSX train derailed in Northeast Washington, leaking hazardous substances along a busy rail corridor, local officials and activists turned their attention to the transportation company responsible, while emergency personnel continued to work clearing the wreckage.
RailwayAge: APTA-Melaniphy quits; White named interim head
Michael P. Melaniphy has resigned as President and CEO of the American Public Transportation Association, effective April 29. APTA Vice President-Member Services Richard A. White is Acting President and CEO until a permanent replacement is selected.
Fact Co Exist: The country’s largest bike-share operator is now making its bikes in Detroit
If you rent a bike from Citi Bike in New York this week (and look carefully) you might notice something new: some of the bikes are now made in Detroit. The company that manages the bike-share program—along with many of the other major bike-share networks in the country—has decided to start manufacturing bicycles in the U.S.
Citylab: Moving to a new home can break the old habits of car commuting
http://www.citylab.com/commute/2016/05/moving-homes-transit-commute-habits/480792/
New research builds on an old lesson: To get people using transit, it’s all about timing. You drive, bike, walk, or take the train, the way you get to work each day is more of an automatic response than it is a conscious choice. So long as other patterns in your life are constant, there’s no signal telling you to ditch your car in favor of the bus—even if you know it’s the cheaper, more environmentally friendly thing to do.
The Hill: US airlines post record-high profits in 2015
http://thehill.com/policy/transportation/278449-us-airlines-post-record-high-profits-in-2015
Airlines in the United States posted record-high profits last year, according to the Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics. U.S. passenger airlines reported a combined after-tax net profit of $25.6 billion in 2015, up significantly from $7.5 billion in 2014. Total operating revenue in 2015 was $168.9 billion, with 75 percent of that total coming from airfares.
STATE NEWS
Los Angeles Times: San Diego County is divided over proposed half-cent tax for transportation projects
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-california-commute-20160501-story.html
A battle is raging over one of the most fundamental aspects of San Diego County's future: how folks get around. Will commuters overwhelmingly continue to drive their cars to work, as they've done for decades? Or will lawmakers fashion a public transportation system — consisting largely of bus, trolley and train lines — that's efficient and sexy enough to appeal to millennials and perhaps their parents?
KMBC (Missouri): Streetcar sparks development along downtown line
http://www.kmbc.com/news/streetcar-sparks-development-along-downtown-line/39341112
Kansas City’s new streetcar will start taking passengers on regular routes this Friday. While the streetcar offers free public transportation between the River Market and Union Station, getting people from place to place is just part of its purpose. Businesses and other development projects have been popping up along the streetcar route.
The Washington Times: Bill encourages transit-friendly communities
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/may/3/delaware-bill-encourages-transit-friendly-communit/
The state House is set to vote on a bill aimed at encouraging local governments in Delaware to create more transit-friendly communities. The legislation cleared the Senate last month and is scheduled for a House vote Tuesday. It calls for the establishment of Complete Community Enterprise Districts offering a mix of residential, recreational, retail and business uses in the same community.
Progressive Railroading: Tacoma link remains fare free until extension opens
Sound Transit's board late last week voted to defer charging fares on the Tacoma Link light-rail route until the line's 2.4-mile extension opens in 2022. Keeping the line fare free until it reaches the Stadium and Hilltop neighborhoods in Tacoma, Wash., will ensure that the service remains an "attractive benefit" to both businesses and local residents, said Sound Transit Board Vice Chair Marilyn Strickland in a press release.
Miami Herald: Level the road for Uber, Lyft and taxis
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/article75239557.html
A broad spectrum of Miami-Dade residents has already voted: Uber and Lyft are an absolutely fabulous option in this transit-challenged community. At Tuesday’s highly anticipated meeting, are Miami-Dade commissioners really prepared to tell them that they’re wrong?
The Baltimore Sun: For faster train travel, Amtrak wants to fix bottlenecks in Maryland
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-amtrak-bridge-20160502-story.html
As Amtrak trains whisk passengers hundreds of miles along the East Coast between Boston and Washington, they're forced to slow down at four pinch points in Maryland, where ancient railroad infrastructure can't accommodate the high speeds and capacity of modern train technology.
Politico Morning Transportation
By Martine Powers | 05/03/2016 05:42 AM EDT
With help from Jennifer Scholtes, Heather Caygle and Lauren Gardner
IMPLOSION AT APTA: The public transit industry is reeling after news spread on Monday about the abrupt resignation of Michael Melaniphy, the American Public Transportation Association's president and CEO. The announcement came just a couple weeks after New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced plans to dump APTA (and nix their $400,000 annual payment), laying out their criticisms in a seven-page breakup letter outlining the group's shortcomings and criticizing the leadership team's "deep divisions," snubbing of legacy transit agencies, and expensive executive salaries, among other issues.
From inside the agency: Melaniphy, who's had APTA's top job since 2011, has reportedly experienced increasingly fraught relations with the organization's executive committee over the years. A person knowledgeable about internal dynamics at APTA told POLITICO that Melaniphy had a difficult working relationship with the committee, particularly its chair, Valarie J. McCall. RailwayAge quoted a critic complaining about his "over-the-top showboating at conferences as well as excessive compensation, given APTA is a public-sector organization." And several people with knowledge of the agency's goings-on suggested that Melaniphy's severance will be a number approximating his annual salary - a total that hovers around $900,000, according to the organization's recent filings with the IRS.
In a statement on Monday night, APTA Vice President Rosemary Sheridan declined to comment on Melaniphy's severance or his relationship with the executive committee, but she said the criticisms raised by the MTA would not go ignored, and the organization was checking in on its other members. "The APTA Board and APTA staff leadership are very focused on showing the value of APTA membership to all of our members, including MTA. We are listening to our members' concerns and are taking them very seriously," she wrote.
As for that damning letter April 8 letter, the concerns laid out by the MTA were wide-ranging, but excerpts offer a sense of APTA's increasing difficulties balancing the interests of members in the public versus private sectors. The highlights: "To have no voting Executive Committee member from either a legacy property or from a commuter rail carrier is unconscionable. ... Other organizations have emerged, providing the same services in a more effective and efficient manner. ... Based upon APTA's lack of responsiveness over the past five years in addressing the serious issues outlined above, we have grave concerns that you will address any of them in a meaningful way if your contract is renewed for another five years."
TODAY'S THE DAY: The National Transportation Safety Board today will release new details about the cause of last year's Washington Metro L'Enfant Plaza smoke incident, as well as recommendations on how to prevent similar incidents in the future. WAMU's Martin Di Caro has some early details: The recommendations will go beyond WMATA and also extend to agencies including D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services, the D.C. mayor's office and the Federal Transit Administration.
Ill-equipped: "Among the recommendations, the NTSB will urge the District to address how its 911 call center unnecessarily delayed the response to the trapped train, sources said," Di Caro writes. "An on-scene emergency response professional also was not trained and failed to adequately integrate Metro personnel into the incident response, sources said. Moreover, the NTSB will reiterate its stance that the FTA is not equipped to handle direct safety oversight of WMATA."
IT'S TUESDAY: Good morning and thanks for tuning into POLITICO's Morning Transportation, your daily tipsheet on all things trains, planes, automobiles and ports.
Just a reminder: T-minus five days 'til Mother's Day! Don't be like MT and leave your gift-purchasing or bouquet-ordering until the last minute. (Sorry, Mom!) Send tips: mpowers@politico.com or @martinepowers.
"Fishing boats sail past the shore / No singing Mayday any more." (h/t Maggie Chan)
BUSINESS IS A-BOOMIN': Airline profits increased more than 300 percent in 2015 - a jump from $7.5 billion for the nation's 25 scheduled passenger carriers in 2014 to $25.6 billion in 2015. As our Jennifer Scholtes writes, "of those airlines' net income last year, $6.8 billion came from fees for baggageand reservation changes . Fees for other items and services - like upgraded seating assignments and food sales - are reported to the department within airlines' overall totals rather than broken out like the other two ancillary fees." Get more on the stats here - but as Jen points out, "these record profits come as the Justice Department investigates allegations that several major U.S. carriers have been colluding to keep ticket prices high."
What's good for the goose: From A4A's Vaughn Jennings: "Airlines are putting every dollar to work for customers, employees and investors. ... Along with enhancing the customer experience and boosting staffing, airlines retired $8 billion of expensive debt in 2015 and returned $10.5 billion to shareholders through stock buybacks and dividends and offered domestic flyers the largest number of seats since the Great Recession."
Show me the money: The American Association of Airport Executives took the statistics as an opportunity to call on airlines to drop their opposition against increasing the cap on airport passenger facility charges - which has not been increased since 2000 - making the argument that airlines haven't done their fair share to support investment and growth at the airports that serve their customers. "For far too long, policymakers have ignored the staggering disconnect from the airline industry," said AAAE President and CEO Todd Hauptli, "which is all-too-happy to collect billions in airline-imposed fees destined for their bottom line but fights with all of its political might to oppose local fees that pay to build airport infrastructure and serve the traveling public."
PUTTING THOSE TAX DOLLARS TO GOOD USE: POLITICO's Burgess Everett and Seung Min Kim have an update on the Senate's progress so far this year, and the not-so-accurate claims that the upper chamber is working harder than ever. Though the Senate lauds the number of bills passed in recent months - the FAST Act and the FAA reauthorization bill among them - Seung Min and Burgess explain that the numbers don't support this notion that the Senate's current stop-at-nothing industriousness: "The chamber is on pace to work the fewest days in 60 years, the party continues to insist it won't act on President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nomination, and Republicans' ballyhooed strategy to shepherd all dozen spending bills through the chamber is in serious trouble," they write. "The level of productivity isn't just about bragging rights: Senate Republicans are staking their push to maintain control of the chamber in November on a message that a do-nothing Senate is a thing of the past. Successfully prosecuting that case could become even more critical if Donald Trump, who many believe will be a drag on the GOP ticket, wins the nomination."
Now that's what we call a grind: "But the GOP has opened itself to attack after criticizing Democrats for developing a shortened Monday through Thursday schedule that McConnell has largely preserved. 'The first thing I need to do is to get the Senate back to normal. That means working more. I don't think we've had any votes on Friday in anybody's memory,' McConnell said immediately after winning reelection and the Senate majority in November 2014. The Senate still comes in on Monday evening and leaves early Thursday afternoon in a typical week. There's not been a single Friday vote this year."
PUTTING THE BRAKES ON RIDERS: The New York Times editorial board is weighing in on the 73-hour trucking rest rule that has sparked concerns about the THUD appropriations process. In an editorial published Monday , the Times called this and other budgetary riders "stealth attacks" and "dangerous amendments aimed at satisfying ideological causes and benefiting special interests." "The rider bars the administration from reinstating the rule unless it can show that it produced a 'statistically significant' improvement in safety and driver health during the brief time it was in place. That is a ridiculously high burden to meet. If the provision becomes law, it will be impossible for the government to issue basic regulations to make sure companies are not putting dangerously tired drivers on the road."
NOT TO WORRY, SCHUMER SAYS: Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is insistent that the current plans to build new rail tunnels underneath the Hudson River won't be - wait for it - derailed by political intervention, but infrastructure advocates in New York are wary. POLITICO New York's Dana Rubinstein has a dispatch from a Monday breakfast where Schumer was asked point-blank whether the so-called Gateway project could get killed off by a single elected official, "such as Gov. [Chris] Christie did a few years ago."
No butts about it: "My guess is, if you looked inside him, he regrets that decision now, because he got walloped on it," Schumer said, referring to Christie. "Politically, the person whose butt is most on the line on this is Christie, because if this tunnel isn't built and 300,000, 400,000 New Jerseyans can't get to work, except by ferry waiting on the long lines, this governor or any future governor will have a lot to pay." (Christie's flack responded that the previous project is "nothing like" the current one.)
NORTON REMAINS CONCERNED ABOUT CSX DERAILMENT: D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton plans to meet with Federal Railroad Administration officials on Wednesday to talk about the freight derailment and hazardous material spill that occurred in northeast Washington on Sunday morning. "This derailment is a wakeup call that should teach us about preventing future hazmat rail car derailments," Norton said in a statement, after she visited the site on Monday. "Although this derailment happened in an open-space area of the tracks, I am particularly concerned if such a derailment had occurred in a tunnel, such as the CSX Virginia Avenue tunnel, where construction continues."
Updates from the derailment site: According to the FRA, crews on Monday successfully re-railed all but one of the derailed cars; the last car will be removed by a truck trailer. Because of 750 gallons of sodium hydroxide leaked into the ground, crews will excavate soil at that site and lay down new tracks. "Customers with freight traveling through the area can expect delays between 8 and 24 hours," the FRA said.
IT'S NOT OVER 'TIL IT'S OVER ... And now, it's over. Six days after the Pennsylvania primary and 1,000 votes short of a win, Art Halvorson finally conceded to House Transportation Chairman Bill Shuster on Monday night.
THE AUTOBAHN (SPEED READ):
- "Cruise Ship From Miami Docks in Havana, Ending Decades-Old Freeze." The New York Times.
- Christopher Elliott, in HuffPo: "There's no scenario under which blocking Norwegian would make the airline industry more competitive. Not one."
- "Metro late-night track work puts wide gap between trains." The Washington Post.
- The Case of the Missing Storage Crates: "RFID tags help keep track of inventories across sprawling auto-parts supply chain." The Wall Street Journal.
- "The Plan to 'Textalyze' Distracted Drivers' Phones Is Doomed. Wired.
- In retrospect, maybe "Mobile Detonation Device" was an unfortunate name for an airborne Wi-Fi hotspot. The Daily Dot.
THE COUNTDOWN: DOT appropriations run out in 152 days. The FAA reauthorization expires in 74 days. The 2016 presidential election is in 190 days. Highway and transit policy is up for renewal in 1,614 days.
THE DAY AHEAD:
9 a.m. - The Federal Aviation Administration holds the 26th meeting of the RTCA Special Committee on Aeronautical Systems Security. RTCA Inc., 1150 18th Street NW, Suite 910.
9 a.m. - The George Washington University's Center for Cyber and Homeland Security holds its annual conference. 805 21st Street NW.
9:30 a.m. - The National Transportation Safety Board will determine the probable cause of a fatal Jan. 12, 2015, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority Metrorail accident. NTSB Board Room and Conference Center, 429 L'Enfant Plaza SW.
1:30 p.m. - The Center for Strategic and International Studies holds a discussion on "The Future of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration" with PHMSA Administrator Marie Therese Dominguez. 1616 Rhode Island Avenue NW.
Did we miss an event? Let MT know at transpocalendar@politicopro.com.
Stories from POLITICO Pro
APTA CEO abruptly resigns after reports of organization's 'deep divisions' Back
By Martine Powers | 05/02/2016 02:30 PM EDT
Michael Melaniphy has resigned as president and CEO of the American Public Transportation Association, an abrupt move that comes just two weeks after New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced plans to drop out of the transit coalition because of alleged poor management and failure to deliver results.
Melaniphy had been serving as the head of the organization since 2011. Richard A. White, the organization's vice president for member services, will service as acting president and CEO.
"It has been an honor to lead this association with such a rich history," Melaniphy said in a statement. "Working with an outstanding Board of Directors, wonderful membership, an amazing and dedicated staff of passionate experts ... has been a real pleasure."
Despite the cordial parting statement, discord within the organization and among its members has bubbled to the surface in recent weeks. In an April 8 letter to APTA, the MTA announced that they were dropping their membership in the organization - a membership that brings $400,000 in annually - and cited concerns about APTA's "deep divisions" and tendency toward "difficult and sometimes even acrimonious discussions."
"Based upon APTA's lack of responsiveness over the past five years in addressing the serious issues outlined above, we have grave concerns that you will address any of them in a meaningful way," the MTA's executive leadership wrote in the letter. "Despite valiant efforts from the current APTA Chair, as well as recent past Chairs, we simply do not see any real progress being made."
DOT reports more than 300 percent increase in U.S. airline profits Back
By Jennifer Scholtes | 05/02/2016 12:57 PM EDT
Illustrating just how drastically the airline industry's cash flow has surged over the last year, DOT is out with an official tally showing after-tax net profit at $25.6 billion in 2015 for U.S. airlines.
That figure amounts to an $18.1 billion jump from the 2014 total of $7.5 billion for the nation's 25 scheduled passenger carriers.
Of those airlines' net income last year, $6.8 billion came from fees for baggage and reservation changes. Fees for other items and services - like upgraded seating assignments and food sales - are reported to the department within airlines' overall totals rather than broken out like the other two ancillary fees.
American Airlines and U.S. Airways, as a combined carrier, collected the most in baggage fees, bringing in more than $1.1 billion from that source in 2015. Trailing not far behind, Delta took more than $875 million in baggage fees and United collected $672 million.
This is the sixth year in a row that U.S. airlines have reported an after-tax net profit and the seventh that they have reported a pre-tax operating profit - coming in at $28 billion for that before-tax total.
Total operating revenue for 2015 added up to $168.9 billion, including $126.9 billion from fares. And operating expenses rang in at $140.9 billion, including $27 billion for fuel and $45.4 billion for labor.
These record profits come as the Justice Department investigates allegations that several major U.S. carriers have been colluding to keep ticket prices high.
Schumer: On Gateway, Christie's 'butt is most on the line' Back
By Dana Rubinstein | 05/02/2016 11:12 AM EDT
Infrastructure types are all stoked about a new plan to build rail tunnels beneath the Hudson River to replace the ones now falling apart, but there's nothing to prevent a lone politician from dashing their hopes again.
That was the thrust of New York Building Congress president Richard Anderson's question for Sen. Chuck Schumer this morning.
"Senator Schumer, how can the federal government prevent a reoccurence of a single elected official killing a very important public works project, such as Governor Christie did a few years ago," he asked, referring to a project called ARC, which Christie unilaterally killed, citing cost overruns.
Amtrak has since come up with a successor project called Gateway, which appears to be moving along.
"My guess is, if you looked inside him, he regrets that decision now, because he got walloped on it," said Schumer, referring to Christie.
"Politically, the person whose butt is most on the line on this is Christie, because if this tunnel isn't built and 300,000, 400,000 New Jerseyans can't get to work, except by ferry waiting on the long lines, this governor or any future governor will have a lot to pay," Schumer added.
At a Crain's New York Business breakfast today, Schumer said he has helped elevate the Gateway project to a high enough level of public recognition that blocking it now carries an enormous political cost.
"This was one of my goals - that any politician who stands in the way will suffer politically for it," said Schumer. "And I think we're at that stage now."
Asked to comment on Schumer's remarks, Christie spokesman Brian Murray emailed, "Do you know anything about ARC?"
A reporter for POLITICO New York said yes.
"So you know it was nothing like Gateway right?" Murray emailed.