- California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s decision to drastically scale back plans for a Los Angeles-San Francisco bullet train is a gift to anti-transit Republicans. (Politico) He ensured Americans won’t get to experience modern rail travel for another generation. (Fortune)
- A new study says that bike- and scooter-shares are hurting bus ridership, but trains and subways benefit. Bus trips tend to be just a couple of miles, which can easily be ridden on a bike or scooter. People also rent bikes and scooters to ride to the train station. (Government Technology)
- The Federal Transit Administration is threatening to withhold $1.6 billion, including funding to build Maryland’s Purple Line, if the D.C. Metro restores late-night service. Critics of extending hours say it would cut into needed maintenance time. (Washington Post) In part because of the threat, a Metro committee voted last week to keep the current hours. (WAMU)
- The Post also reports that Maryland is planning to add toll lanes to I-270 and the Beltway. And Georgia legislators are pushing for a whole new interstate: I-14, which would run from west Texas to Augusta. (WSB-TV)
- New York City’s mayor penned an op-ed in the Times after Amazon took its ball and went home rather than deal with predictable local opposition — but that predictable local opposition had been ignored by Mayor de Blasio and Gov. Cuomo when they decided to give a $3-billion handout to the richest man in the world.
- While Democrats in Gwinnett County vocally support expanding transit into the rapidly changing Atlanta suburb, most Republicans don’t want to talk about it either way. (AJC)
- New Orleans’s transit authority is eliminating stops along the Canal Street streetcar line in hopes of speeding up ride times. (The Advocate)
- Biking, walking and transit groups are asking Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine for a cut if the state raises its gas tax. (Cincinnati Inquirer)
- Federal authorities are investigating potential fiscal mismanagement of a Honolulu light-rail project. (Civil Beat)
- Awwwww. An Oklahoma City couple got married on the streetcar on Valentine’s Day. (KOCO)
So FTA pretends actually useful transit for other than federal 9-5 desk jockeys is unnecessary. Great! Does anyone believe that every night there are maintenance workers on all parts of the rail system?