Officials from Metro and the Federal Transit Administration signed a pair of agreements Thursday that will provide a $670-million federal grant and a $160-million federally-backed loan for the Regional Connector light rail project. The total budget of the project is $1.37 billion. A media event with public officials is being [continue reading]
The following op-ed was written by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who also serves as the Vice chair of the Metro Board of Directors: The Urban Transit Revolution Depends on Federal Dollars By: Eric Garcetti Too often, the story of Los Angeles is written by pundits who are focused on [continue reading]
Have a transportation-related article you think should be included in headlines? Drop me an email! And don’t forget, Metro is on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Pick your social media poison! http://storify.com/metrolosangeles/colby-fire Light rail should not be built under terminal area, officials say (L.A. Times) Metro and Los Angeles World Airport officials narrow the options for [continue reading]
Good news for the Purple Line Extension and the Regional Connector, the pair of Metro projects slated to receive money this fiscal year from the federal New Starts program. The projects are set to receive $65 million each in the 2014 fiscal year. New Starts helps local transit agencies fund [continue reading]
em>Have a transportation-related article you think should be included in headlines? Drop me an email! And don’t forget, Metro is on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Pick your social media poison! Happy 123rd Birthday, Yosemite National Park! Too bad you’re closed because of the federal government shutdown. And too bad a [continue reading]
Here’s the update from Metro government relations staff from late Friday — doesn’t appear much has changed over the weekend: While the U.S. Senate has moved to adopt a continuing resolution to keep the federal government operating at a level consistent with sequestration levels ($986 billion), it remains unclear what [continue reading]
Potential FTA Shutdown Dear Colleague 09 26 13 The above letter was sent from Peter Rogoff, Administrator of the Federal Transit Administration, to transit agencies across the United States. One obvious impact of a shutdown, as the letter states, is that the FTA won’t be able to process grants that [continue reading]
Here is a look at some of the transportation headlines gathered by us and the Metro Library. The full list of headlines is posted on the Library’s Transportation Headlines online newspaper, which you can also access via email subscription (visit the newspaper site) or RSS feed. Have a transportation-related article you want included [continue reading]
Some good news: it appears that a temporary solution has emerged to prevent Metro from losing $3.6 billion in federal funds due to an ongoing dispute over pension reform between the state of California and the U.S. Department of Labor. The solution involves a state bill exempting transit agencies from [continue reading]
Some readers may have been following a difficult issue for Metro in recent weeks. The U.S. Department of Labor has indicated that it believes that pension reform legislation in California (known as PEPRA) violates the collective bargaining rights under federal law of unions representing transit workers. As a result, Metro [continue reading]
