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Federal Transit Administration
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Stop the energy-hogging Dulles Rail project
M ass transit proponents point to high gas prices as another reason to green-light the troubled Dulles Rail project. But a new study shows that heavy rail is not the way to go to reduce energy costs. Using data from the U.S. Departments of Energy and Transportation, Cato Institute Senior Fellow Randal O’Toole found that heavy rail systems like Metro — which uses electric power generated by burning oil and coal — actually use more fuel per passenger than most automobiles and produce more greenhouse gases. Factors such as much heavier railcars that run practically empty most of the day, along with energy loss during transmission from generating sources, conspire to counteract rail’s “inherent efficiency advantage,” O’Toole said. In fact, the study determined, no rail transit system in the country is more energy-efficient per passenger mile than a hybrid Toyota Prius. “Electrically-powered rail lines are greenhouse friendly only in regions that use alternatives to fossil fuels to generate half or more of their electricity,” O’Toole found. And Metro is definitely not one of them.
State will replace bus fleet with 500 hybrids
Gov. Martin O’Malley announced Tuesday the state would replace three-quarters of the Mass Transit Administration’s diesel bus fleet by 2014 with 500 hybrid vehicles that would cost 50 percent more, but save money in the long run and the planet as well.  Critics question conduct of Baltimore Regional Transportation BoardToo much money for highways, and not enough public access to meetings?
Pittsburgh goes to feds for cash for light rail
The Port Authority of Allegheny County wants to dip into its federally funded capital budget to cover cost overruns in a $435 million light-rail expansion.  Planned Anne Arundel bus depot could be explosiveHoward and Anne Arundel would have to pay $500,000 to determine whether unexploded explosives are buried at a former artillery test site for a planned bus depot and remove them, as the counties seek to improve transit for the increase in employees coming to Fort Meade.  FTA proposal would bar Metrobus rides to schoolThe District’s long-standing system of taking students to school on Metrobus would be prohibited under a federal proposal to tighten the rules that govern public transit agencies. |
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