The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) approved a reduced $29 billion investment program. The board's approval comes after a year of wrangling over funding that came to a head when state and city authorities reached an agreement earlier this month. The plan will now go to a state review board made of representatives of the state legislature, the governor's office and the mayor's office. The board has 30 days to veto the program after which the MTA can push ahead with projects.

Plans for a modernized Rockland-Westchester bus service along I-287 have gotten a $10 million boost from the federal government. The U.S. Department of Transportation awarded its state counterpart funding to help pay for new bus stations, ramp signals and other technology to create a faster ride for users of Hudson Links, a sleek effort that would replace the Tappan ZEExpress bus service in 2018. "Today is another major step forward in our efforts to improve transportation in the lower Hudson Valley," Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a statement.

New York State Department of Transportation Commissioner Matthew J. Driscoll announced plans for the new Schenectady Train Station, which will be a modern, fully accessible transportation hub connecting travelers to New York City, Niagara Falls and destinations between and beyond.  NYSDOT worked closely with the Capital District Transportation Authority (CDTA) to build on their preliminary station design and oversee final design. Station construction is scheduled to get under way in the spring.

Two New York Projects are among 39 nationwide sharing in $500 Million in TIGER grants awarded by the US Department of Transportation. In the Innovative category, the Hudson Links I-287 BRT/ITS Project in Rockland and Westchester Counties, New York received $10 million to improve east-west travel options along the I-287 corridor. In the Opportunity category, the Bronx River Greenway Project received $10 million to close the South Bronx gap along the Bronx River Greenway.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s former transportation commissioner on Thursday suggested that the government might want to step away from the mega-project business. “Transportation agencies are great at delivering those state-of-good-repair projects,” said Joan McDonald. “I’m not so sure that transportation agencies are the entities best suited to do some of these mega projects.” McDonald was not alone in her view that the government should rely more on the private sector.

The House is expected to debate and vote within days on a six-year authorization of highway and transit programs, after both chambers of Congress extended the surface transportation program authority for three weeks and the House elected Paul Ryan, R-Wis., as its new Speaker. But in what was a suddenly packed legislative schedule ahead of a looming Oct. 29 HTF expiration, House floor consideration of a long-term highway and transit bill was pushed into the first week of November.

Last week the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced they were increasing the monthly limitation for the qualified parking benefit from $250 to $255 for calendar year 2016.  This highlights the enormous disparity between the monthly exclusion for parking benefits and transportation benefits, which remains frozen at $130 – well below the level of parking.  The Commuter Benefits Work For Us coalition continues to urge support for The Commuter Benefits Equity Act of 2015 (S.1792) and The Commuter Parity Act of 2015 (H.R. 990), which would establish parity between the parking and transit monthly benefit caps.

Newark, NJ -- In mid-2013, Panasonic moved its North American headquarters to downtown Newark, NJ. Since then, the company has seen its share of employees taking transit to work grow from a mere 4 percent to an astonishing 57 percent. That more than doubles Newark’s overall commuter transit share of 26 percent, which is itself among the best in the nation. Three key factors facilitated the swing.

Washington, DC -- Transit operators, city officials and people in the federal government all hope that big data will help them change public transportation to get transit where it will be most used. Just outside D.C., Mary Lee Kingsley is waiting at a stop on Bus Route 47 in an office park in Montgomery County, Md. There's a big LED screen at this stop with a map displaying the current location of buses and how long they'll take to arrive. "I'm a fairly recent convert, but ... now I'm so pro-47 bus, it's ridiculous," she says. "I wish every bus stop was like this."

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..........(L-R) NYPTA President Carm Basile,................................(L-R) NYSDOT Commissioner
..........Assemblyman David Gantt (D-Rochester)...........................John Driscoll and NYPTA
..........RTS CEO Bill Carpenter....................................................President Carm Basile

 

......... 2015 PTLI Graduates (L-R) James...................................PTLI Class of 2016 (L-R) Gary Guy,
......... Ramos, RTS; Richard Nasso Jr, CDTA;.............................. CDTA; Dave Williams, RTS; Alice
......... Joseph Landry, CDTA; Omar Alvarado,............................... Eccleston, TCAT; Michele Westfall,
......... NICE Bus; James Morrell, NFTA; ...............................  ......CARTS; Carol Hargrove, UCAT; Jason
......... Larry Kaminisky, Ardent Solutions.......................................Abounder, NFTA; Ken Boasi, RTS

 

......... ...............................
......... 2015 Hall of Fame Inductees (L-R).........................................2015 CONNECTIONS EXPO
......... Bruce Black, John Walsh, Rick Swist