Blog Archives
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Good Green Jobs
By Leah Harnack - Thursday February 10, 2011February 14 is just days away. It’s the day President Obama introduces the FY12 budget request. With all of the recent talk about rebuilding America’s infrastructure during the State of the Union - but without the specific plans yet being outlined - we’re all waiting to hear what we can expect for funding. And it also means February 15 is when the House is expected to begin days of debate on the FY11 continuing resolution, which is funding the extension of SAFETEA-LU. With the Republican ‘Pledge to America,’ and a goal of reaching $100 billion in cuts, there is a lot of speculation of where cuts will be and how much really will be cut. Reading a blog by USDOT Deputy Secretary John Porcari, he points out something that those... -
Sharing the Value of Transit
By Leah Harnack - Thursday February 3, 2011A recent conference call led by American Public Transportation Association (APTA) President Bill Millar provided information about the impact on the economy if the government continues to delay a federal transportation authorization bill. During the question and answer session, Millar mentioned that APTA is in the process of meeting with each of the 109 new members of the 112th Congress. Something that was particularly discouraging that he shared, “We’re finding that many of the new members are simply not familiar with the full scope and range of investments that the federal government makes. “We have found some examples where some of the new members don’t even realize that the federal government invests in the nation’s... -
Last Stop
By Fred Jandt - Thursday January 27, 2011It's my final week here at Mass Transit. And I have one last stop to make before I deadhead into the sunset - the MT Position. Conversations are funny things. Usually they start from one person making a point, someone supporting that point and others opposing it. That’s sort of what happened with the recent debate about the growth of quiet cars here in the United States. I spoke about this a few weeks back. The notion that self-policing on quiet cars usually gets out of hand and turns into an interesting sociological experiment. Two articles related to that discussion caught my eye. The first was from the Wall Street Journal, which discusses how we bounce from one end of the spectrum to the other in regards to many things... -
A House Divided
By Fred Jandt - Thursday January 20, 2011I came across an interesting image this week: Does that look like something debuting this summer on the SyFy channel? Pretty high-tech, huh? That is a new “Eco-City” being built in Tianjin, China. Let me restate that, it’s currently being built in China. Now compare that to the biggest infrastructure story of the week here in the United States: So China is building a futuristic new eco-friendly city — with public transit built right in no less — and here we are scratching our heads as our gas mains explode around the country. We hear a lot about our crumbling infrastructure and the dangers is presents, but I don’t think the public understands just how bad things are out there. Our bridges are... -
Quiet Controversy
By Fred Jandt - Thursday January 13, 2011Have you ever been shushed? The resulting emotion I can only quantify as equal parts indignation and shame. Now many more people will get that experience on trains in three cities across the country. I’m a fan of the quiet car. I’m the guy who plans to sit for hours whenever he travels, so I always have my iPad and a pair of headphones handy. Give me some Wi-Fi and I’ll be good for hours. So it was with some interest that I read about Metra implementing quiet cars this week with MBTA and NJ Transit testing them out. The problem with quiet cars is that nobody knows just what “quiet” really means. I spent a few years working in a bookstore when I was in college. What I found most interesting working there was... -
New Year, New Challenges
By Fred Jandt - Thursday January 6, 2011We usually work a couple months out for Mass Transit magazine. That means I am writing the cover story for our February issue in January, from an interview I recorded at the end of last year. Sometimes that gets confusing, but I think it gives you a unique perspective on industry issues. We all fall into our favorite focuses — rail versus bus is a big one — and that’s understandable. However, having to juggle all aspects of transit from funding to safety and security to the latest tech to what cool things agencies are doing gives us more of a macro view than most. Sitting back and looking forward, 2011 looks like it could be an interesting year for transit … and that may not be a good thing. “May you live in...
