Eno Transportation Weekly

February 8, 2019 – This week, the director of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) told Congress that he has ordered the strengthening of cybersecurity requirements for its new transit procurement, but said that further attempts to ensure the survival of a domestic railcar manufacturing industry should come in the form of Congress passing a law.

February 1, 2019 – On Monday, Los Angeles Metro launched an on-demand shared ridehailing service around three transit stations as part of local and national initiatives to examine mobility and access to public transit.

January 4, 2019 – The Eno Center for Transportation is pleased to announce the 2019 Transit Senior Executive Program (TSE) class.

November 30, 2018 – This week, the Federal Transit Administration announced that they are formally allocating fiscal 2018 appropriations for the Capital Investment Grant (CIG) program for four new mass transit projects: the third section of the mammoth Los Angeles Westside Purple Line extension, plus smaller projects in Tempe, Arizona (a new streetcar system), Minneapolis, Minnesota (a new bus rapid transit system), and capacity upgrades in the Dallas, Texas DART rail system.

November 28, 2018 – Is the Federal Transit Administration’s Capital Investment Grant (CIG) program sitting on over a billion dollars of funding provided by Congress instead of providing that money to subway, light rail, and bus rapid transit projects across the country? Or is the CIG program a ticking time bomb with nearly $5 billion in unfunded liabilities that will come due in future years, when future Congresses are not legally bound to make good on those promises?

November 15, 2018 – Voters approved far more ballot measures to raise money primarily for roads than for any other mode, but transit and multimodal measures will raise more dollars over the next 20 years, according to Eno’s latest analysis of the 2018 transportation ballot measures.

November 1, 2018 – While voters across 30 states will see transportation ballot measures this Election Day, Coloradans are set to decide on two: one that funds road projects without raising new revenue, and another that raises the sales tax to fund road and multimodal projects.

October 25, 2018 – Public transportation will remain an essential part of our economies and transportation system, but it must leverage its strengths and evolve to meet today’s challenges.

October 9, 2018 – This November, voters across the country will decide whether they want their city or state to invest more in transportation.

October 10, 2018 – September marked the end of another successful Eno/MAX program. Throughout 2018, a cohort of 48 students participated in the Eno/MAX (Multi-Agency Exchange) Program to share best practices, build their professional network, and enhance their leadership skills.

August 24, 2018 – Today, the Federal Transit Administration announced the recipients of $84.4 million in grants to local transit agencies for the purchase of low-emission or zero-emission buses and related equipment.

August 1, 2018 – Last night, the U.S. Senate agreed to a one-year ban on any new procurements of mass transit rail cars or buses from companies owned or subsidized by the government of the People’s Republic of China, if the procurement uses any Federal Transit Administration formula funding.

July 23, 2018 – The use of public transit mobility data and people movement data allows for more realistic and short term changes to be made so that commuters benefit from things like improved routes and schedules.

July 20, 2018 – The Federal Transit Administration this week finalized two long-awaited safety rules governing all transit agencies that receive federal funds.

July 6, 2018 – Last Friday (after ETW went to press), the Federal Transit Administration sent out a “Dear Colleague” letter to transit agencies around the country formalizing the Trump Administration’s new approach to evaluating the local financial contribution to new mass transit projects.

July 6, 2018 – Continues the story of the federal role in mass transit from January 1963 through the law establishing a Department of Transportation – without a role in mass transit – in late 1966.

June 19, 2018 – As New York struggles to fix the subway and several proposals are circulating, a close look at what Los Angeles is doing is instructive.

June 21, 2018 – New Jersey Transit (and Amtrak) face a July 14 deadline for getting the Federal Transit Administration to approve their latest revised financial plan for the replacement of the Portal North Bridge, the first project of the $30+ billion Gateway Program of passenger rail projects in New York and New Jersey. The revised financial plan will take advantage of $600 million in state bonds approved by the state Economic Development Authority and the New Jersey Transit Board of Directors last week.

May 31, 2018 – The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) issued a final rule Wednesday on Private Investment Project Procedures (PIPP), which allows recipients of FTA funding for public transportation capital projects to modify or waive FTA requirements for that project if they can demonstrate the waiver will encourage private sector involvement.

May 31, 2018 – The surprise inclusion in the draft fiscal 2019 Transportation-HUD appropriations act of a provision banning the use of federal transit dollars to purchase transit vehicles from Chinese companies could have enormous implications for transit agencies in Chicago, Boston and Los Angeles – but it’s also about a long-term strategy to prevent Chinese rail car makers from getting into the separate U.S.