Transit

The Obama administration's proposal for a new federal role in transit safety oversight would eventually apply to buses, although the first round of rules would be directed at subways and light rail, according to the U.S. DOT.

Details of the Obama administration's proposal to carve out a federal presence overseeing transit safety, first reported yesterday by the Washington Post, have yet to cross the desks of some top lawmakers and industry stakeholders. But reaction to the idea, both positive and hesitant, is plentiful this morning.

At last month's Rail-Volution conference in Boston, Streetfilms was able to grab a few moments with William Lind, a politically conservative transit advocate. Lind aims to provide "liberal transit advocates" the language to build support for public transportation (okay, just rail) in terms that conservatives can relate to. Some of Lind's arguments don't reflect our views here at Streetfilms, especially his disdain for buses (which we don't cover in this video), but he makes a thought-provoking case for transit investment. Streetsblog readers won't want to miss his critique of highway spending as a massive government intervention.

After taking a beating from the never-ending flow of traffic on 19th Avenue and Sunset Boulevard for 30 years, the N-Judah's track will be replaced where it intersects with those two streets starting Friday. For the next two weekends and the first weekend in December, crews will work to rip up the track and replace it with longer-lasting rail, at a total cost of $2 million. The work is part of the MTA's $18 million Rail Improvement Project, which will also include sections of the J-Church and L-Taraval lines, drawing on local, state and federal funds.

Alice Rivlin, now at the Brookings Institution, is one of the capital's most experienced economic hands.

Virginia Railway Express (VRE), the commuter network that links northwest Virginia to Washington D.C., today refused a challenge by Amtrak to its decision to switch operating providers to the U.S. arm of Keolis, a private French transit company.

During his 24 years in Congress, former Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) was known for a brand of Republicanism now considered endangered. An ardent environmentalist and defender of objective government science, he played a key role in drafting the acid rain limits that are serving as a model for this year's climate change fight.

When Vice President Joe Biden visited Minnesota's New Flyer bus company to tout the economic stimulus law's $8.4 billion investment in transit, hopes were high for a boom in cleaner-burning vehicle production -- which made for some bad press when the nationwide transit funding crunch forced New Flyer to lay off 13 percent of its workers.

The Senate environment committee released new details of its climate change legislation over the weekend, including the share of "emissions allowances" -- the revenue generated by regulating carbon in a cap-and-trade system -- that the bill would reserve for various sectors of the American economy.