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Metrobus ridership plummeted and the number of rail passengers fell well below staff projections during the first month of the agency's new fiscal year -- and the first month of higher fares. Metrobuses transported 11.66 million passengers in July, nearly 1.3 million fewer than during the same month last year. Metro officials had anticipated a much smaller drop, projecting about 200,000 fewer trips. Rail ridership was also down... Beginning in late June, Metro officials raised the cost of all trips for bus and rail passengers. The fare increases included a 25- to 35-cent increase for bus riders, depending on payment...

MILLIONS of commuters in London endured a grim journey to work today after staff on the Underground train network walked out for the second time in a month, sparking calls for tougher strike laws. People were forced to walk or cycle in heavy rain, squeeze on to packed buses or brave heavy traffic by driving as only 30 per cent of the Tube trains were running in the morning rush hour, according to operator London Underground. The strike follows a walkout in early September as part of a dispute between trade unions and London Underground managers over the planned axing...

Public transit ground to a halt across France and on the London Tube on Tuesday, with tourists and commuters bearing the brunt of a wave of discontent over government austerity measures. French unions challenged unpopular President Nicolas Sarkozy with a major nationwide strike over plans to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62, shutting down trains, planes, buses, subways, post offices and schools.

RALEIGH — North Carolina’s traffic congestion could double in the next couple of decades, with Charlotte drivers facing the same types of delays Chicago drivers face now. That was the conclusion of a 2007 John Locke Foundation report. It recommended $12 billion of spending to clear North Carolina’s congested urban roads and prepare for future traffic growth. Many traffic problems outlined three years ago continue to cause concerns today. Randal O’Toole, senior fellow with the Cato Institute, recently tackled the issue from a national perspective in the book Gridlock: Why We’re Stuck in Traffic and What to Do About It....

To bus riders who trek daily through the dingy, dusty and drafty Transbay Terminal, the place is something to be hurried through or, at best, endured. But it wasn't always that way, and today, a week before demolition of the old terminal begins, the public will get a last chance to peek at the past. They'll see a sampling of the places that have been covered by plywood, hidden behind painted-over windows or walled off over the decades as the terminal declined from a bustling commuter hub to a mostly neglected bus station. The terminal, built as part of the...

Another verbal fight that turned violent was posted on YouTube Tuesday. A man who announces himself as a 67 year old gets into it with a fellow much younger passenger. It started as an argument that seemed to be a simple misunderstanding over a comment made while taking a seat. The two separated with one moving to the front of the bus for a time. But that time out did not last long. More words are exchanged. Then the younger man walks up front for some more yelling followed by fists flying. Note: the older gentlemen is wearing a light...

Drivers have also started a Facebook group called Toronto Transit Operators against public harassment, mainly in response to a video recorded by a passenger last week showing a bus driver taking an unscheduled 7-minute stop outside a doughnut shop to get his nightly coffee. The driver was subsequently suspended. Another member of the group advises operators that if they see someone filming their actions, they should pull over and request police assistance: "You don't know why these people are recording your vehicle, you just know that they are not supposed to do it." The TTC's general manager, Gary Webster, then...

Since the inception of the Las Vegas Monorail, Nevadans have been repeatedly reassured that they will not wind up on the hook for its bills. Nevermind the high salaries monorail executives and board members are getting, that won’t ever wind up coming out of the public’s pockets. The Nevada Business and Industry Department’s issuance of $650 million in tax-exempt bonds to construct the transit system? Not to worry, no liability there. Granting state sales tax and county property tax exemptions to the monorail? Yes, it helped the monorail system avoid putting millions of dollars in the public coffers, but it...

Agencies Nationwide Raise Fares, Cut Service as Budget Pressures Mount; In Chicago, 'Less Frequent, More Crowded Service' Public transportation will be more crowded and more expensive this year as big-city transit systems across the country respond to severe budget pressures.Funding from state and local governments -- a key part of budgets for transit systems -- has been cut and ridership is down overall, prompting transit officials to trim service and raise fares at a time when many customers are pinched themselves.San Francisco is raising fares for commuters this month. Chicago will lay off workers and eliminate bus routes in February...

The decision by New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority to sharply cut services to close a nearly $383 million deficit is the latest sign that the state will operate under harsh fiscal constraints in the coming year. The proposed cuts, which would include shutting down two subway lines and slashing night and weekend hours on a system that operates around the clock, will be aired at several public hearings this winter. A final vote is planned in the spring by the board of the MTA, which manages transit systems in New York City and surrounding areas, including Long Island. The measures...

The social and economic costs of lost productivity and wasted fuel from traffic-choked streets are estimated to be $87 billion a year, according to the Texas Transportation Institute’s 2009 Urban Mobility Report. So far, federal, state and local efforts — focused mostly on expanding road capacity — have been largely unsuccessful at slowing the growing congestion on U.S. roads. Transportation experts now advocate a different approach, changing the emphasis from increasing supply to reducing demand. To reinforce smart growth policies, plug mounting transportation funding gaps and achieve immediate traffic relief, London, Stockholm, Singapore, Milan and three cities in Norway have...

Any T (Boston: Mass Bay Transit Authority) driver caught using a cell phone on duty will be fired on the spot, MBTA officials announced this morning unveiling what could be the toughest such policy in the country. “We believe this is the strongest policy of its kind for any major transportation agency in the nation and I think it will help make us one of the safest,” said MBTA General Manager Dan Grabauskas this morning. Any subway or bus driver caught using a cell phone on the job will be fired and any driver caught even in possession of a...

Nov 26, 2008 5:00 pm US/Eastern "Feds Warn Of Terror Plot Against NYC Subways Homeland Security: Expect Larger Police Presence In NYC And In Major Cities Across U.S. During Holidays" ARTICLE SNIPPET: "NEW YORK (CBS/AP) ― Federal authorities are warning police of a possible terror plot against the New York City subway and train systems during the holiday season, prompting local officials to beef up security at stations. An internal memo obtained by The Associated Press says the FBI has received a "plausible but unsubstantiated" report that al-Qaida terrorists in late September may have discussed attacking the subway system. A...

LOS ANGELES - Los Angeles County's mass transit agency this month will likely ask county supervisors to put a half-cent sales tax increase measure on November's ballot, a move aimed at raising tens of billions of dollars to build a Los Angeles subway extension and other projects. While a recent poll shows general voter support for the transportation tax hike, the five county supervisors, who are members of the 13-member Metro board, are not advocating the increase. And the whole thing could go up in smoke if a related bill by Assemblyman Mark Feuer doesn't make it past state lawmakers....

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority has piqued the ire of sensitive New Yorkers with an ad that shows a menacing-looking rat and asks the following in bold letters: "You gonna eat that?" The text accompanying the ad attempts to explain Metro's draconian enforcement of its no-eating and no-drinking policy. It reads: "Unlike some subway systems (which will remain nameless), you don't see rats the size of house cats roaming the Metro. Why not? Because we are so strict about eating and drinking in the system. So help us keep the crittes away. Please don't eat or drink on the...

FORT WORTH, Texas, Jan 3. -- Just before New Year's Eve, a Fort Worth mother was kicked off the public bus for reading the Bible aloud to her children on the way to church. "What kind of person pulls over public transportation and kicks out a mother and her children for reading their Bible on the way to church?" said Kelly Shackelford, Chief Counsel for Liberty Legal Institute, the legal organization representing Christine Lutz. "Freedom of religion exists on public transportation just like anywhere else." Christine Lutz was reading the Bible to her children while on the way to church...

TOKYO (AP) - Did you just grope me? Shall we head to the police? That's the message women are flashing on their cell phones with a popular program designed to ward off wandering hands in Japan's congested commuter trains. "Anti-Groping Appli" by games developer Takahashi was released in late but has only recently climbed up popularity rankings, reaching No. 7 in this week's top-10 cell phone applications list compiled by Web-based publisher Spicy Soft Corp. The application flashes increasingly threatening messages in bold print on the phone's screen to show to the offender: "Excuse me, did you just grope me?"...

Agency cites weather, clamp down on disability rides for some of the loss but acknowledges that its 2007 estimates were a 'bit aggressive.' By Ben Wear AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Thursday, September 06, 2007 Capital Metro, even with persistently high gas prices providing an incentive for transit use and a steadily increasing metro population, is losing riders. Ridership, according to figures released by the agency in its 2008 budget, will be 6.2 percent lower in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30 than in the previous fiscal year. Capital Metro expects to have just less than 33 million boardings in the current year...

Report says that more than $45 billion of the estimate is either in error or undocumented. The State Auditor's Office this morning released a report challenging the validity of almost half of a purported $86 billion shortfall in Texas transportation funding over the next generation, and cautioning that the gap estimate "may not be reliable for making policy or funding decisions." That $86 billion figure has been cited repeatedly by Texas Department of Transportation officials and some legislators as a major reason for the state's increasing need for new toll roads. The number is a compilation of estimates from local...

Over the decades of watching the Legislature, no issue has so inflamed passions — and unified such disparate groups — as the current toll-road proposals winding through state government. Texas Department of Transportation officials have argued that the state's highway needs greatly exceed what fuel taxes will generate, and the only way to catch up with the traffic congestion is to sell some planned and existing roads to private operators and use the cash to build other roads. Clearly, the proposal that has most inflamed opponents has been the Trans-Texas Corridor, a massive 50-year project for which the state would...