When it first opened more than a century ago, the New York City subway was considered a feat of American engineering, now it's another example of the country's ailing infrastructure. Luckily, there's a man with a plan, an Englishman in New York who proposes the city's largest infrastructure expenditure since the 1950s.
View the full video here.
At a ceremony on October 4 in Ithaca, RTS Highland Planning and Transportation Management & Design, Inc. (TMD) received an award from the New York Upstate Chapter of the American Planning Association (APA) as part of their 2018 Professional Awards Program.
The award was in the Public Outreach category, recognizing the team’s comprehensive outreach strategy during stage one of Reimagine RTS – the public transit redesign effort underway in Monroe County. Transportation Management & Design, and Highland Planning, were the project consultants to RTS during the first stage of Reimagine RTS.

The Capital District Transportation Authority (CDTA) has partnered with several Albany organizations to launch the Capital City Trolley. The free service will provide a safe and convenient link between a pair of Albany neighborhoods – Lark Street’s Restaurant & Retail Row and Downtown Albany’s Entertainment District.
“As the Capital Region’s transportation leader, we continually look to improve on and expand services to meet the needs of the communities that we serve,” said Georgie Nugent, CDTA Board Chairwoman. “The Capital City Trolley does just that. It provides a new option to attract customers who may not have experienced CDTA before. We want these new customers to enjoy the convenience of fast and easy transportation for an enjoyable evening in downtown Albany.”


KEY SUPPORTERS

Governor Andrew Cuomo deployed 100 additional National Guard soldiers to transit centers in the state on Wednesday, citing an "abundance of caution" after packages apparently containing explosives were intercepted in the City and suburbs this week.
Five bombs were sent to Democratic figures in New York City and Washington, DC, this week. All of them were found and removed by authorities before they could detonate.
Three of those explosives were intercepted at locations in New York, including packages sent to the Clinton family, Democratic mega-donor George Soros and CNN's Manhattan headquarters.
"New Yorkers have never succumbed to fear or intimidation, and today will be no different," Cuomo said in the statement. "We are tough, we are resilient, and we will not allow terrorist thugs to change the way we lead our lives."

President Trump asked for a 5 percent across-the-board budget cut from each federal department during a cabinet meeting on Oct. 17; a budget cut intended to stem the rise of the federal deficit.
“I’m going to ask each of you to come back with a 5 percent budget cut from your various departments,” the president said. “Whether it’s a secretary, an administrator, whatever, I’m going to ask everybody with a 5 percent cut for our next meeting. I think you’ll all be able to do it. Get rid of the fat. Get rid of the waste. It will have a huge impact.”
The request came on the heels of a report released jointly by the U.S. Treasury Department and the Office of Management and Budget on Oct. 15 that said the federal deficit in fiscal year 2018 increased by $113 billion to $779 billion. Overall, the federal deficit now represents 3.9 percent of gross domestic product, the report noted, which is, a 0.4 percentage point higher compared to fiscal year 2017.


As part of its ongoing webinar series on timely and innovative topics in the community and public transportation industry, CTAA will present two webinars in November.
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The 12 Principles Driving Mobility On-Demand Friday, November 2 at 2:00 p.m. (Eastern)
Register here
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NTD Reporting Best Practices Tuesday, November 20 at 2:00 p.m. (Eastern)
Register here
Jarrett Walker is a bit of guru on redesigning bus networks. He has worked with networks in Houston, Columbus, and Seattle, and has seen successes in those cities. He is wrapping up work in Dublin, Ireland.
Walker is in Pittsburgh for the Rail~Volution conference in Downtown. He is not weighing in on whether Port Authority of Allegheny County should or shouldn’t alter its bus network, but he did sit down with Pittsburgh City Paper to discuss Pittsburgh’s big public transit opportunity: busways.



Thank you to everyone who joined us in Albany last week for our 2018 NYPTA Conference. More than 300 transit professionals came together to focus on the future of public transit!
Congratulations are in order to our four newest inductees into the NYPTA Hall of Fame: Frank Kobliski, Gordon Nevison, Hilary Ring and Cynthia Ruiz. Their contributions to the transit industry cannot be overstated.
Congratulations to our nine Public Transit Leadership Institute graduates as well! They successfully completed NYPTA's year-long leadership program:
- Stephanie Belokopitsky, HR Manager, CDTA
- Michele Craig, Director of Transportation Administration, Broome County
- Christine Farrow, Manager, EEO/Diversity Development, NFTA
- Joshua Gardner, Senior CAD/AVL System & Operations Systems Analyst, Centro
- Lea Goodness, Manager of Maintenance Systems, RTS
- Sharon Muir-Eddy, Manager of Operating Budget, RTS
- Michael Williams, Senior Planner, CDTA
- Douglas Teator, Project Manager, Creighton Manning
- Daniel Thorp, Transit Supervisor, Broome County
Check your email soon for a conference survey. Your opinion is valued in making next year's conference the best it can be. We can't do it without you; thank you for your continued efforts in serving your communities.
See you in Tarrytown, NY, November 12-14 for the 2019 NYPTA Conference!

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