Thursday’s Headlines Wish You a Happy New Year
By
Blake Aued
12:01 AM EST on January 1, 2026
- Despite President Trump’s best efforts, in 2025 cities still found ways to stabilize transit funding, expand service, open new bus-only lanes, use AI to prevent speeding and successfully implement congestion pricing. (CityLab)
- The Trump administration may have slashed billions of dollars in transit and green infrastructure funding, but California high-speed rail is moving forward, as are congestion pricing in NYC, a new train station at LAX and renovations at Penn Station. (Architects’ Newspaper)
- Last year brought turmoil to transit in many ways, like the Chicago funding saga and labor unrest in Philadelphia, but there were many victories as well. (Trains)
- Streetsblog USA shared the best and worst of 2025’s transportation stories.
- Austin’s Project Connect transit package hit several milestones in 2025. (Community Impact)
- Bay Area Rapid Transit made significant strides in on-time service, safety and cleanliness. (Contra Costa News)
- Greater Greater Washington shared its favorite transportation-related posts from the D.C. area.
- For the Twin Cities, urban inequality is now the biggest challenge facing the Metro, surpassing COVID recovery. (MinnPost)
- Phoenix opened a new light rail line, but also finished a bunch of freeway and road-widening projects. (Arizona Republic; paywall)
- 2025 was the year Nashville started building out Mayor Freddie O’Connell “Choose How You Move” initiative. (WPLN)
- Federal budget cuts are expected to leave Virginia transit projects in the lurch in 2026. (Daily News-Record)
- AI slop advertising took over the New York City subway last year. (Curbed)
Blake Aued has been doing Streetsblog's daily national news digest for years. He's also an Atlanta Braves fan, which enrages his editor in New York.
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