CTA riders ask: Why is Chicago’s transit tracker unreliable?

“It’s definitely not uncommon,” said Robert Puentes, Eno’s president and CEO, of delays and other service problems. “Pretty much every agency, especially major ones, knows where their vehicles are … [the challenge] is providing customers with the real-time information.” It’s particularly challenging for buses, Puentes said, and private firms like Clever Devices work on proprietary […]

Transit Agencies Turn to States to Avert Fiscal Cliff

Garett Shrode, a policy analyst at the Eno Center for Transportation, a Washington think tank, said cuts alone are unlikely to stave off the crisis many of the agencies are facing. “Cutting service won’t really help solve this fiscal cliff,” he said. “You might shrink that deficit a little bit. But most of the operating […]

Amtrak Wants $3.6 billion in Subsidies. It Probably Won’t Get All of That

The passenger rail company is feeling bullish this year, said Robert Puentes, head of the Eno Center for Transportation, an advocacy group. “What they have requested here is more money than Amtrak has ever received,” he said. That’s on top of billions from the infrastructure law that passed two years ago. Share

Mass Transit Hangs Off Eroding Fiscal Cliffs

“The beauty and tragedy of heavy rail is that once you’ve dug the hole in the ground and put a subway line in it, it’s there for 100 years whether people are still choosing to embark and disembark in that spot, or not,” says Jeff Davis, a senior fellow at the Eno Center for Transportation […]

Illinois Lawmakers Seek ‘Bold’ Plan for Chicago Area Transit

“Transit works best when it’s on a regional scale. People cross borders all the time,” says Robert Puentes, president and CEO of the Eno Center for Transportation, a nonprofit group that is helping CMAP research potential recommendations to the Legislature. “Coordinating all of that is a challenge for any transit agency, especially in a place […]

Cities See Hyperlocal ‘Activity Centers’ Key to Sustainable Growth, Less Car Dependency

“This is a model for concentrated future growth,” said Robert Puentes, president and CEO of the Eno Center for Transportation. “It’s less about just concentrating [homes and jobs] so that people can use transit to get to those parts of the region, [and more about] trying to concentrate more of the work and play around […]

Could the Bay Area Lose BART?

“Politicians pass around the phrase all the time, ‘it’s too big to fail’ because money has to come from somewhere,” Shrode said. “But no one wants to fork over the money to plug these holes in order to prevent cutting service.” Share

FAA Under Fire For Recent Close Calls Between Planes

Jeff Davis explains to CNN the intricacies of the FAA, and what it means for fliers in 2023. Share

Pete Buttigieg’s presidential Hopes Make Him an Easy Target for Republicans — and his Slow Response in Ohio Gave Them Plenty of Ammo

“Because we’ve never had a secretary who had national political ambitions before, people are treating him a little more differently than they would a regular secretary of transportation,” Jeff Davis said. Share

New Report Urges Reform of Spectrum-Allocation Process

“While the immediate crisis was averted, it exposed critical and interrelated gaps and failures in the process and policies used for efficiently allocating spectrum,” said Robert Puentes, president and CEO of Eno, who co-authored the report. Share