Transit

NBC News reports: Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy announced today that Amtrak and the federal Transportation Department will take over the planned reconstruction at New York City’s Penn Station from the local Metropolitan Transportation Authority, slashing the amount of federal funding allocated for the project. In a statement, Duffy accused the MTA of having a “history of inefficiency, waste and …

The Texas Tribune reports: President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday terminated a federal grant to help fund a long-sought high-speed rail line between Dallas and Houston — saying that if the embattled project moves forward, it will have to do so without federal help at this stage. The U.S. Department of Transportation nixed a $63.9 million planning grant for the …

The Texas Tribune reports: Texas lawmakers could imperil the future of public transportation in two of the state’s largest urban areas, transit officials and advocates warn. Republican legislators are entertaining proposals to sap hundreds of millions of dollars from Dallas Area Rapid Transit, the state’s largest public transit system, and thwart the voter-approved expansion of public transportation in Austin known …

The New York Times reports: New York’s congestion pricing plan raised $48.6 million in tolls during its first month, a strong start for the program that exceeded expectations and kept it on track to raise billions of dollars for the region’s decaying mass transit system. The revenue figures, which were released on Monday by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, are the latest …

“If you wanna go protest something, if you wanna shout at someone, go to the governor’s mansion. Talk to Democrats in the state legislature who have brought us this crappy project. We’ve seen those reports from the last month on what DOGE has exposed with regard to fraud, waste, and abuse. And you know what? We’re done with that! You …

The Hill reports: This week, New York subway officials grabbed a woman passing the turnstiles at the 161st St.-Yankee Stadium station and announced she had won a prize for being their billionth passenger of 2022. That sounds like a lot of passengers, until you consider that the New York City Subway carried 1.7 billion riders in pre-pandemic 2019. The nation’s second- …

The Washington Post reports: The public transit service that riders were accustomed to before the pandemic is not coming back, a result of fewer trips to downtown Washington and a rise in workers abandoning commutes, Metro leaders testified Wednesday at a hearing on problems plaguing the transit agency. Hundreds of suspended rail cars could return in April, but Metro officials …

NBC News reports: Frontier Airlines and Spirit Airlines, the two largest low-cost carriers in the U.S. have agreed to merge, creating what would become the fifth-largest airline in the country. The boards of both companies approved the deal over the weekend, prior to the CEOs of both airlines announcing the agreement in New York City. The deal, valued at $6.6 …

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports: MARTA CEO Jeffrey Parker, who led the public transit agency through an era of expansion and pandemic, died Friday night, the agency confirmed. The agency said Parker died by suicide. An agency official confirmed he was struck by a train at the East Lake station. The DeKalb County Medical Examiner’s Office said it could release no …

Gothamist reports: New York is suffering from more traffic congestion than anywhere else in the country — surpassing car-choked Los Angeles for the first time in nearly four decades, a new study revealed. According to the annual mobility report released this week by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, the average driver in the New York region wasted 56 extra hours …

The New York Daily News reports: It’s about to get a whole lot easier to pedal across the city. Citi Bike announced plans Thursday to roll out 4,000 new pedal-assist electric bikes over the next few months. Citi Bike’s electronic overhaul comes less than a year after the bike share program was bought by Lyft, which kicked in a $100 …

The New York Post reports: The MTA’s new fare payment system will be called OMNY – short for One Metro New York – and agency employees will test the new contactless cards out starting next week, according to a memo sent to workers. The pilot program being offered to MTA workers is the first major step toward the agency’s move …

NY 1 reports: Yellow taxis are both an iconic symbol of New York City and the mode of transportation of choice for many commuters. But those sitting behind the wheel and in the backseat of these cabs are coming to terms with their new, costlier reality. A congestion pricing surcharge for all for-hire vehicles traveling through some parts of Manhattan …

The New York Post reports: ‘L’ of a plot twist! Less than a month after deeming the 15-month total shutdown of the L-train tunnel linking Manhattan and Brooklyn “vital,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday backpedaled at the 11th hour and announced a piecemeal approach that will allow the line to still run 24/7. Rather than the long-anticipated complete year-plus closure …

The Associated Press reports: Deep in the bedrock 15 stories below the famous Grand Central Terminal, a cavernous construction site is slowly, and expensively, taking shape as a commuter rail hub that will accommodate more than 150,000 passengers a day. East Side Access has been dogged by massive cost overruns and delays since construction began nearly a dozen years ago. …

ABC New York reports: For the first time since the September 11th terror attacks 17 years ago, a 1 train pulled into a previously destroyed subway station at the World Trade Center. The new World Trade Center Cortlandt station is now complete. It is fully accessible and has digital, state of the art real-time train schedules. On Friday, MTA contractors …

The New York Post reports: It appears that the Williamsburg exodus has begun — with apartment inventory shooting up by 25 percent and rent slipping back down to 2015 prices — thanks to the L-train shutdown. Local hipsters are apparently heading for the hills as the final day of service fast approaches. “The shutdown is eight months away, which means …

The New York Daily News reports: The City Council voted Wednesday to stop issuing new licenses for most for-hire vehicles for a year in an effort to regulate e-hail apps like Uber, Lyft and Via, whose rapid growth has thrown the city’s taxi industry into chaos. “This is about supporting and uplifting drivers, making sure they are paid enough to …

NBC News reports: An Amtrak train traveling from New York to Miami collided with a CSX freight train in South Carolina early Sunday morning, causing the lead engine and some passenger cars to derail. The local sheriff’s office confirmed there were at least two people killed and 70 injured among the 139 passengers and 8 crew. The National Transportation Safety …

These incidents are becoming more regular. The Associated Press reports: A train has derailed in a tunnel in downtown Washington but officials say there are no injuries. The city’s Metro rail system said in a tweet that the derailment happened around 6:40 a.m. Monday. At just after 8:15 a.m. Metro tweeted that all passengers on the train had been evacuated …