SEPTA is moving away from using social media to alert riders about bus and trolley delays, shifting instead to real-time updates on its website, app and third-party platforms like Google Maps.
Senior Detroit Department of Transportation officials abused their authority by shielding employees who disrupted bus service by having “a romantic interaction,” abandoned a running city bus, and violated workplace rules, a Detroit Office of Inspector General investigation found.
The findings are detailed in a final OIG report that describes “employee misconduct and lapses in disciplinary accountability” inside DDOT’s Operations Division, including failures by top supervisors to properly investigate or discipline serious violations.
The investigation began after an anonymous complaint alleged that Senior Transportation Service Inspector Andre Reece and bus driver Dayna Ruff engaged in “inappropriate intimate behavior,” falsely reported mechanical problems, and left a bus running and unattended, causing major service delays.
Investigators substantiated the allegations, saying the “romantic interaction” resulted in “a 115 minute disruption of services and a waste of City resources” on May 6. Two weeks later, the pair again met repeatedly along Ruff’s route and abandoned a running bus, prompting additional delays.
Despite classifying the conduct as a Class IV offense, which is the most serious category under DDOT’s disciplinary system, Superintendent of Operations Howard Bragg III issued only five-day suspensions. Under the department’s 2008 employee handbook, the penalty for a Class IV offense “shall, in absence of substantial mitigating circumstances, be a thirty (30) day suspension, pending discharge,” the report states.
The OIG found no evidence that either employee requested a hearing or that any mitigating circumstances were formally considered, as required by policy.
The report further concluded that Bragg failed to conduct a proper investigation before issuing discipline, despite the availability of surveillance video that documented the misconduct.
“Superintendent Bragg did not seek out or request the video evidence from DDOT Safety,” the report states. “Therefore, he failed to conduct a thorough and proper investigation of the complaint before issuing discipline.”
Assistant Director of Operations Andre Mallett was also cited for abusing his authority by allowing the lenient discipline to stand even after learning that additional video evidence substantiated the complaint.
The OIG also found that Reece and Ruff failed to disclose their romantic relationship, as required by a city executive order governing supervisor-subordinate relationships, and that DDOT and human resources officials failed to properly review or complete the required disclosure forms.
Beyond that case, the report describes broader systemic problems inside DDOT, concluding that “disciplinary practices employed by DDOT’s Operations Management Team are not compliant or consistent with the disciplinary policies mandated by the 2008 DDOT Employee Handbook.”
The findings are especially troubling in a city like Detroit, where roughly one-third of residents do not have access to a car and rely heavily on DDOT buses to get to work, school, medical appointments, and childcare. Service disruptions of more than an hour can have cascading consequences for riders who already face chronic delays.
In response to the OIG’s draft report, Bragg and Mallett argued that human resources officials advised that discharge was not warranted and that re-issuing discipline would violate procedural fairness. The OIG rejected those claims, finding that required video evidence was available at the time and that the handbook’s mandatory penalties were ignored without justification.
The OIG recommended additional discipline for Reece and Ruff, punishment for Bragg and Mallett, and significant reforms to ensure future investigations are thorough, transparent, and consistent with written policy.
“DDOT should create a system of procedures to allow more oversight over the review and issuing of discipline to ensure the discipline is proportionate to the offense and that all policies are followed,” the report concludes.
The RTD train platform at Union Station at evening rush hour. Jan. 31, 2024.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
The haze of teensy dots that currently obscures oh-so-many bus and train windows will soon to be a thing of the past.
The transit agency’s board voted 9-4 Tuesday night to ban ad wraps from covering vehicle windows, starting next year. Existing wraps will stay in place until their current advertising contracts run out.
According to RTD, 493 buses, 128 light rail vehicles and 48 commuter rail vehicles currently have ads over at least some of their windows — and those wraps earned RTD $786,000 between April and September, more than 40 percent of the transit system’s total ad revenue in that time.
Despite the potential for lost revenue, RTD says directors took the action after years of pressure from transit advocates.
“This is a huge victory for riders and the rider experience,” James Flattum, co-founder of the group Greater Denver Transit said Wednesday. “There was a consensus last night that this was an improvement in rider experience that RTD can afford.”
Greater Denver Transit coordinated an email campaign asking RTD to nix window ads, which it complains keep riders from enjoying metro scenery, make it harder for people to spot their stops and contribute to a sense of buses and trains as dim and uninviting.
On the board, the measure was championed by RTD director Brett Paglieri, who represents a Lakewood-focused district.
In a release touting the end of window ads, RTD noted it is also ending a program that allowed digital advertising on screens at train platforms and bus stops.
TriMet is holding open houses this month to hear from riders as they prepare for deep service cuts coming in late 2026 and 2027. Image courtesy TriMet
PORTLAND, OR – TriMet will hold open houses this month to hear from riders as public transit officials prepare for deep service cuts coming in late 2026 and 2027. You are welcome to express your thoughts in-person this week at the following locations:
5-7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 14, at the Rosewood Initiative, 14127 SE Stark St. in Portland
5-7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 15, at the Clackamas Community College Harmony Campus, 7738 SE Harmony Road, Rooms 120/130, in Milwaukie
5-7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 16, at Fairview City Hall, 1300 N Village St. in Fairview
The open houses provide an opportunity to get additional information about the cuts being considered, see maps, and ask questions of planners.
You also will have an opportunity to fill out the Service Priorities survey, which is also available online, through October 31st.
NJ Transit officials unveiled the first of 175 new buses on Monday that the state agency is introducing to its fleet in an effort to phase out aging vehicles.
The 40-foot-long New Flyer buses feature several new amenities and accessibility upgrades, including USB charging ports at multiple seats and brighter LED lighting inside. Riders also will be able to step onto a lower platform to board the buses instead of climbing stairs. Ramps closer to the ground also will make it easier for seniors and people with disabilities to come aboard.
At a news conference in Newark, NJ Transit CEO Kris Kolluri said the vehicles cost $850,000 each and are expected to have 12-year, 500,000-mile lifespans. They will replace older buses that entered the fleet in 2008. Some of NJ Transit’s aging buses now have more than 600,000 miles on them.
Although NJ Transit’s headquarters is in Newark, officials said some of the new buses will be deployed to the agency’s garage in Washington Township, Gloucester County. Officials did not say how soon South Jersey passengers will start seeing the new buses, but all 175 of the vehicles are expected to enter the fleet by June 2026.
NJ Transit is the largest statewide public transportation system in the country, serving about 500,000 bus riders every day. The agency has committed to replacing or modernizing all of its outdated buses and rail cars by 2031. Since 2018, the agency has authorized the purchase of more than 1,400 buses with a total investment of more than $1.7 billion.
The New Flyer models are equipped with onboard security cameras, blind-spot cameras to assist drivers and turn-warning systems to alert pedestrians. They also meet improved federal emissions standards.
They each have 38 seats — down from 45 seats on the old fleet — and standing room for another 25 passengers. Officials said the new buses are meant to be used for NJ Transit’s local routes.
The upgrades come after fares were increased by 15% in July 2024, marking the agency’s first hike in a nearly decade. A second increase of 3% took effect this July, raising the base for a one-zone bus trip to $1.80.
In August, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) announced plans for improved bus and shuttle options in South Jersey. A $5 million federal investment created a service this fall between Vineland Transportation Center and the Atlantic City Bus Terminal with two round trips each weekday. The shuttle program is being operated by the South Jersey Transportation Authority with support from NJ Transit.
Camden’s Newton Avenue Bus Garage also is getting an expanded fleet of electric buses made by New Flyer. The program started in 2022 with NJ Transit providing service for local routes on eight buses in the city. The investment Murphy announced will add another eight electric buses in Camden.
Murphy said the investments are meant to connect workers with employment corridors that have not been well-served by mass transit in years past.
“These new transportation options in South Jersey will not only better connect residents to jobs, schools, and health care, but also lay the foundation for a stronger and more interconnected regional economy,” Murphy said.
Extreme heat, long operation hours, and an influx of millions of tourists a year creates a perfect storm for bus fleets in Las Vegas, leading to rapid wear-and-tear and more service outages.
Those service outages are exacerbated by a federal rule that caps the number of spare buses a transit agency can maintain at 20% of their overall bus fleet, regardless of how many more buses a transit service needs to maintain reliable service.
Transit agencies that keep more spare buses than allowed risk losing federal funding if they aren’t granted an exemption from the Federal Transit Authority (FTA) for additional spare buses. However, the federal agency has never granted a waiver for additional buses to any state.
Southern Nevada’s congressional delegation is now asking the FTA to remove or increase its cap on the number of spare buses the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada (RTC) can maintain in Las Vegas.
Southern Nevada’s transit authority operates a fleet of over 400 buses and relies on FTA funding to purchase both active and spare buses, but federal limits on spare buses have strained operations.
In a letter Thursday Democratic U.S. Sens. Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto – along with Reps. Susie Lee, Steven Horsford, and Dina Titus – said “transit agencies across the country face a variety of operational and environmental challenges that often require maintaining spare bus ratios above the current 20% cap.”
“Las Vegas, like many western cities, experiences extreme heat that accelerates bus wear and increases breakdown frequency, requiring more frequent maintenance to keep vehicles operational. This puts significant strain on RTC’s fleet, as insufficient spares can lead to service disruptions for the approximately 80 percent of Las Vegas riders who rely on transit for commuting to work,” wrote the delegation.
High transit demand and the extreme desert climate leads to rapid wear and tear on buses in Las Vegas, especially for high-mileage buses operating routes with long hours.
Unlike many other cities, tourism and a non-traditional workforce in Las Vegas creates high peak demand for transit service throughout the day, with some routes operating 24 hours daily.
Asphalt in the city can also reach temperatures of more than 140 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer, according to the RTC, increasing maintenance needs for buses traveling on hot roads throughout the entire day and reducing the fleet’s availability.
Frequent special events that attract thousands of tourists at a time also complicates bus management, placing further strain on an already stretched fleet.
Conventions and sporting events frequently create a surge in ridership that requires more spare buses to provide reliable transit, said the RTC.
“Las Vegas’s vibrant tourism economy depends on reliable transit service to transport millions of visitors, not just year-round residents, especially during major events such as the Super Bowl, Formula 1 Grand Prix, FIFA tournaments, and large concerts,” wrote the delegation.
Southern Nevada’s transit authority said they have worked to address frequent breakdowns in their fleet by prioritizing preventative maintenance, including regularly performing cooling system checks and addressing common wear-and-tear issues like battery and alternator failures exacerbated by the intense heat.
But more flexibility on spare buses allowed in a fleet is needed so “agencies like RTC of Southern Nevada to better maintain reliable, safe, and equitable service for their communities,” reads the letter.
One of the busiest buses in New York City, the Bx12, starts its route at one end of the A train, in Inwood at the very top of Manhattan, and runs across to Co-op City, in the Bronx—the largest housing coöperative in the world. In between, it crosses a lot of places people might want to get on: the 1 train, the 4, the D, the 2, and the 5; the tip of the Bronx Zoo; the bottom of the Botanical Garden; Fordham University; the Metro-North railroad (Hudson Line); and the Bruckner Expressway, an enormous highway designed by Robert Moses, which cuts large swaths of the Bronx off from the water.
The Bx12 is almost always full. On a recent weekday afternoon, large crowds waited at each stop, and people pounded on the back doors when they couldn’t squeeze on. There is no cross-town subway in the Bronx, which is part of the reason that Fordham Road, where the Bx12 often slows to a crawl, is the second-busiest bus corridor in the city. (The first is the M15, which goes up and down First and Second Avenue in Manhattan.) Most New York bus lines don’t collect nearly enough fares to cover their operating costs. The Bx12 comes close.
Soon, the bus might be free. Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic Party’s nominee for mayor, won June’s primary in a landslide, partly on a promise to make every bus route in the city faster—and fare-free. (In 2023, as a state assemblyman, Mamdani had co-led a pilot program that made one bus route in each borough free for a year.) Recently, Andrew Cuomo, who lost the Democratic primary and who is now running as an Independent, announced that he, too, wants to make the bus free, but only for low-income New Yorkers. (Cuomo made the announcement in front of a sign that read “We have problems . . . but nothing we can’t solve. . . .”) Eric Adams, the current mayor, had originally attacked Mamdani’s policy as unrealistic and expensive, but he has started to soften. “I’m not opposed to free buses,” he said earlier this month, in an appearance on a podcast called “Smart Girl Dumb Questions.” He said of Mamdani’s free-bus trial, “When he presented that to me at Gracie Mansion, I said, ‘Wow, that’s a good idea.’ ”
Is it a good idea? 1.3 million people catch the bus every day—roughly forty per cent of the daily subway ridership. People want a lot of things from the bus. They also don’t expect much. Commuters often find themselves waiting for the bus at a low moment—when the train is down, or it’s late at night—and then, it won’t arrive. (Industry experts call this a “ghost bus.”) Occasionally two buses will come at the same time, a phenomenon, known as “bus bunching,” which is extremely complex to model, like fluid dynamics or global supply chains, and depends on intricate traffic flows. The average speed of a Manhattan bus is 6.3 miles per hour, about the pace of a light jog. The fare-evasion rate is at forty-five per cent, according to the M.T.A. (For the subway, it’s only ten per cent.) Since 2008, drivers have been told that they don’t have to enforce the fare.
Danny Pearlstein, the spokesman for the pro-transit group Riders Alliance—which supports the free-bus policy—told me recently that the bus “is a vehicle of last resort.” People rely on it, but they don’t like it. Making it free, he said, would boost ridership and speeds, lead to improved service, and give a financial break to bus riders, who are generally lower income. (Riders Alliance sells a tote bag that says “Real New Yorkers Ride the Bus.”) “The bus is sort of the invisible workhorse of the city,” Pearlstein said, as we sat pressed close together on a crowded Bx12. “Right now, they’re a lifeline, but they could be a lot better.”
The other day, at a stop on East Fordham Road and Southern Boulevard, Leslie Delgado was trying to head west. “I don’t think I’ve ever been on a Bx12 that was empty,” Delgado said. She was wearing a bright-yellow T-shirt, and the doors of the express Bx12 had just closed on her because it was too packed to get on. Delgado takes the bus every weekday from her home in the west Bronx to her work as an outdoor educator. As she waited for the next one, I brought up Mamdani’s proposal. “I think it’s great,” she said. “I feel like true New Yorkers know that they’re free—it’s just about accessibility.”
A Bx12 was shuttling toward us, a local, set to stop every three or four blocks, and Delgado chose not to take it. “I like the bus,” Delgado said. “I think there needs to be more of them.” I asked whether she was concerned that making the bus free could result in less bus funding. “Yes, but there’s so much more money going to stuff like cops, and from what I’ve seen they just kind of stand around,” she said. Then she stuck her head out. Two express buses had pulled up at once; she hopped on the first one.
What would happen if the bus became free? Most experts I spoke to were extremely reluctant to speculate. Still, there are a few things that they agreed on. Ridership would go up. “Typically, when something is free, people will take more of it,” Ana Champeny, vice-president for research at the Citizens Budget Commission, a nonpartisan fiscal watchdog, said. Subway habits could change. (A report from the N.Y.C. Independent Budget Office, a nonpartisan government department, estimated that four-per cent of subway rides would switch to bus rides.) Commuters would probably start taking the bus on shorter trips. It’s highly likely that people would walk less.
Speed isn’t guaranteed. Passengers could begin to board from all doors, which would make things faster. But increased crowds might slow it all down. During the free-bus trial, ridership on each of the free lines surged between twenty-two and forty-six per cent, but speeds dipped slightly, by 2.2 per cent on average, potentially because the efficiency gains of faster boarding were cancelled out by delays created by more demand. “Everyone’s asking this question,” Emily Pramik, a lead transportation analyst at the Independent Budget Office, said. “Theoretically, making buses free could reduce what’s called dwell time, which is the time that a bus spends at a bus stop taking on passengers.” Boston is currently trialling free buses, and data shows less dwell time; New York’s trial showed more. Traffic is really the big issue. (The problem, as it always is in New York, is other people.) “It might be faster,” Adam Schmidt, a transit expert at the Citizens Budget Commission, said. “It might not be.” Pramik said, “I have to tell you, I don’t know.”
People on the bus would probably become nicer: data from the free-bus trial showed that assaults on drivers dropped. Would free buses lead to more homeless people using the bus for shelter? Not really, David Giffen, the executive director of the Coalition for the Homeless, told me. “Most people who are sleeping unsheltered, they prefer to find places where they can lie down—buses are not ideal places to get rest.”
How much would it cost? A report prepared by the Independent Budget Office, in 2023, projected an annual price tag of six hundred and fifty-two million dollars. What else costs the city six hundred and fifty-two million dollars? It’s thirty-nine days of running the subway, or around two hundred and fifty days of trash collection and street cleaning, or employing thirty-three hundred N.Y.P.D. officers for a year. It would also cover just three per cent of the M.T.A.’s 2022 annual operating expenses—eleven days. But the cost would likely be higher. The report estimated that the M.T.A. collected about seven hundred million dollars in 2022 from bus fares. In 2025, the M.T.A. budget aims to collect eight hundred and fifty million, and, in 2026, the fare is set to rise to three dollars. (“The price hikes compared to the service that we get, it doesn’t equate,” Delgado told me, at the bus stop.)
The six-hundred-and-fifty-two-million-dollar figure also doesn’t factor in the cost of running extra buses if ridership were to explode. Pramik, who was one of the authors of the I.B.O. report, told me that, at least in 2023, the bus system could take a ridership bump of twenty per cent without extra expenses. That would have brought ridership closer to pre-pandemic levels. But there’s a tipping point. Champeny, of the C.B.C., said, “For a while, the extra cost is going to be zero—until you tip, and you need another bus. And then you have this big jump.”
Charles Komanoff, a transit expert often cited by the Mamdani campaign, estimates that free buses would generate six hundred and seventy million dollars in economic benefit from saving people time. (Komanoff also predicts a 0.01-per-cent reduction in “all-cause mortality”—“two fewer deaths per year”—due to improved health caused by an uptick in cycling prompted by fewer motor vehicles on the road.)
Finally, there’s the six-hundred-million-dollar question of who pays. The city of New York does not control the M.T.A.’s budget. The money for free buses would have to be found through negotiation with Albany and Governor Kathy Hochul. “There’s plenty of money in New York to support free buses if our political leaders prioritize it,” Pearlstein, of Riders Alliance, said. The current administration disagrees. “Mayors can’t do that,” Adams said on “Smart Girl Dumb Questions.” “The governor already said, I’m not signing off on that.”
The impacts of the SEPTA’s service cuts took shape Monday – the first weekday with reduced subway and bus service and the first day of classes in the School District of Philadelphia.
Additional cuts and fare increases are scheduled to take effect next week unless SEPTA receives funding needed to close its $213 million budget deficit. In a news conference, officials said the city’s streets will become more congested and that public transit could become more crowded if those additional reductions are implemented.
The city is attempting to mitigate the problems, but commuters also are urged to avoid traveling during rush hour as much as possible, allow for extra travel time, consider off-street parking and to consider carpooling. They also advised people to use the Regional Rail system’s park-and-ride locations to travel into the Center City, though Regional Rail faces a 20% reduction in service beginning Tuesday, Sept. 2.
“We do expect increases (in traffic) next week,” said Michael Carroll, deputy managing director for the Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems. “Folks will return from vacations after Labor Day, more schools will be in attendance. … We’re maintaining our infrastructure, accelerating repairs where we see issues that may affect our transit system.”
Carroll said the city is monitoring traffic volume, tracking external factors that could reduce the efficiency of street work and looking for changes in parking patterns and travel peaks.
After lawmakers failed to pass legislation to fund the transit agency, SEPTA pushed forward with the elimination of 32 bus routes on Sunday and reduced service on buses and trains by 20%. Additional service cuts and fare increases are expected Sept. 1- 2 unless the state steps in.
Tony Watlington, superintendent for the School District of Philadelphia, suggested the service cuts had impacted student attendance Monday, pointing to a drop-off at Furness High School in South Philly.
“As we left Furness High School, Principal (Daniel) Peou told me that typically he would expect 90-plus percent of his children to be in attendance, but because of some of the transportation impacts, those numbers have dropped down to the 70s,” Watlington said. “While that’s not a promising trend, we are hopeful that this can get turned around sooner rather than later.”
The district’s attendance numbers for Monday were not available at the time of the news conference, Watlington said.
About 52,000 students ride SEPTA to get to school, Mayor Cherelle Parker said. To protect students, SEPTA Transit Police Chief Charles Lawsonsaid Friday that the transit authority is deploying additional officers during peak travel times on approximately 12 routes. Officers will ride buses, patrol stations and watch cameras.
SEPTA had sounded the alarm about the service cuts for weeks, and set a deadline for lawmakers to come up with more funding. The transit authority’s leadership has estimated the system needs $168 million to survive and avoid most service reductions, but that was before the Sunday’s deadline passed, when SEPTA eliminated 32 bus routes and began reducing bus and subway service by 20%.
The funding issue has held up the passage of the Pennsylvania budget.
The Regional Rail cuts that would take effect next week may not be the last. Without additional funding, SEPTA officials say there will be more reductions on Jan. 1. That includes eliminating five Regional Rail lines, stopping rail service at 9 p.m. and cutting another 18 bus routes. Coupled with the reductions in place, SEPTA service would be reduced by 45% from what it was earlier this summer.
City Council members pressed state lawmakers to return to the negotiating table and pass a budget that includes support for SEPTA.
“The longer the cuts are taking place, the more significant impacts that we’re going to see taking place throughout our city,” Council President Kenyatta Johnson said at Monday’s press conference. “… We’re going to continue advocating until we get a deal done.”
Brian Pollitt, president of Transit Workers Union Local 234, said SEPTA’s service cuts will result in overcrowding on the buses. That often leads to additional frustrations, placing drivers at risk. The union represents 5,000 transit workers.
“Pennsylvania’s Republican state senators have been derelict in their duty,” Pollitt said in a statement. “The conditions facing SEPTA’s passengers and employees brought on by the lack of state funding could and should have been avoided.”
Updated schedules and trip planning tools with details on the changes can be found on SEPTA’s website.
OurBus helps students travel to the Northern Virginia/Washington D.C. area without personal cars or expensive airline tickets.
NEW YORK, October 23, 2024 (Newswire.com)
– Rally OurBus, the revolutionary Mass Mobility as a Service company, is offering two brand new stop locations on the route between Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, the James Madison University campus in Harrisonburg, and the Washington, D.C. area. The new locations will make travel for students at these universities more convenient than ever.
The express service allows students without access to cars to travel home easily, at a fraction of the cost of airline tickets and approximately as quickly, considering the time needed to travel to and pass through airports. The OurBus route from Blacksburg to Washington is faster than train travel or other, less direct bus routes.
In addition to stopping at Tysons, the bus will make a second stop in Gainesville, VA, at the University Blvd Park & Ride. “Gainesville has been one of our top destinations from Virginia Tech, and we’re seeing positive reaction from students to this new service,” said Rally OurBus co-founder Axel Hellman.
In Blacksburg, the bus stop location has been relocated to the Multimodal Transit Center on Virginia Tech’s campus. This facility, opened by Blacksburg Transit this year, will allow travelers to connect seamlessly between OurBus and the local transit network, making last-mile connections easier than ever. The previous bus stop location at Lane Stadium did not offer any local transit connections.
Rally OurBus said the route is already proving popular with the two universities, which have a combined enrollment of more than 50,000 students. “Trips for Labor Day weekend sold out, and we’re already seeing demand for future weekends,” said Hellman.
Rally OurBus uses top-quality motor coaches with restrooms, comfortable seating and modern amenities like complimentary Wi-Fi. Riders can purchase tickets online, receive mobile boarding passes, and they and their families can track the arrival time of the bus in real time. While this particular route is most popular with university students, anyone is welcome to ride.
The Rally bus rideshare concept creates a unique strategy that disrupts legacy business models. The company does not own buses but instead networks together thousands of small private bus operators via its technology platform, creating a marketplace that outperforms the competition while also creating business for bus operators.
For more information about the new service, visit the Rally Ourbus website here.
About Rally OurBus Rally is a bus rideshare company with a platform that creates on-demand bus trips across many U.S. cities, Canada, and other countries. Riders generate a trip or choose from one of the many crowdsourced trips. Whether for a concert, a sporting event or a festival, Rally unites passionate people, making the journey part of the event-day experience.
OurBus uses AI to create regularly scheduled intercity services. They have 150 stops in the Northeast United States, with stops in Canada, and plan to expand internationally. The company competes with legacy incumbent bus companies on these routes by applying technology and business innovations to regional transportation.
Rally OurBus is disrupting the bus industry, bringing new business to local bus companies, and promoting a greener, safer form of travel. Its Mass Mobility as a Service combines technology and business model innovations in the bus industry. Rally OurBus is disrupting the mode of transportation that moves more people than any other. Its new intercity routes for regional transport and crowdfunding address surge demand travel by converting private car users to shared bus riders.
DERRY — The future of school buses is electric, and thanks to a multimillion-dollar grant, the majority of the district’s diesel fleet will be replaced with new, battery-powered buses.
The Derry Cooperative School District and its transportation provider, First Student, celebrated a $8.6 million grant received from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean School Bus Program. The money will be used to purchase 25 zero-emission school buses for the district.
“It’s the movement forward,” said Superintendent Austin Garofalo. “We’re all looking at hybrids or looking at electric vehicles. The fact that they can do that with a bus, it’s just amazing.”
Local and state officials, school district staff, and representatives from the EPA and First Student gathered outside West Running Brook Intermediate School on Wednesday to celebrate the clean future of school buses.
Students from the school’s Kid’s Care Club, an organization devoted to community service, attended the event. Three of the students spoke about how excited they are to have the new buses.
“I think it’s really cool that our school is doing something to help the environment,” said Henry Fournier, a sixth-grader. “I’m proud to be part of a school that cares about the future.”
David Cash, the EPA’s New England regional administrator, said the new buses will be better for everyone.
“This is, again, all about your future and all about your health,” Cash told the students. “This new bus right here will help protect your health, be better for the bus drivers, be better for the teachers, and be better for the school district.”
In May, the EPA and First Student announced that Derry would receive the grant and 25 zero-emission school buses. The program has brought $31 million to New Hampshire for 110 new school buses.
Derry was awarded the most money out of any New Hampshire community that applied and tied with Pembroke for receiving the most school buses.
School Board Chairman David Clapp said this was one less worry for taxpayers in Derry.
“The education funding in New Hampshire is tough and when you get grants like this to help, every little bit counts,” Clapp said. “Usually, we’re trying to figure out how to mitigate issues. Now, we’ve got something that we won the lottery in and it’s awesome.”
Clifton Dancy, the school district’s director of information services and transportation coordinator, said he was proud to celebrate such a remarkable moment for the district.
“We are overjoyed to have received the largest grant in New Hampshire – more than $8.6 million from the EPA’s Clean Bus rebate program,” Dancy said. “This generous funding will enable us to acquire 25 zero-emission buses. To put that into context, we have 29 buses, 25 of them will be electric.”
First Student representatives said the goal is to have the electric buses on the road for the 2025-26 school year.
Ben Henry, First Student’s general manager for Northern New England, said the money will go toward updating the First Student bus station in Derry so it can accommodate the new buses, including adding charging ports for the vehicles.
The new buses were part of a bipartisan initiative championed by U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., and U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas, D-N.H., who also spoke at the celebration.
“This is about making sure that we’re responding to the needs of our communities,” Pappas said. “The health benefits are there, the energy benefits are there, the cost benefits are there. So this is a huge win-win situation.”
Hassan said this was a moment where Derry residents did not have to decide between taking care of the environment and taking care of their wallets. She said this is one time where her constituents can have it both ways.
“This is one of those examples, too, where it isn’t just about choosing between costs and the environment. This both addresses climate change and lowers costs,” Hassan said. “This is about saving money and investing in the future. It’s a really, really good day for Derry and New Hampshire and our country.”
All 10 members of the MTA board approved the proposal on Sept. 25, which includes purchasing new railcars across the subway and commuter rail systems; building at least 60 subway stations and six commuter rail stations; investing in signal modernization and fare gates; making critical structure repairs; and boosting station environments.
The plan now heads to the State Capital Program Review Board on Oct. 1, as required by New York’s Public Authorities Law.
But that is only half the battle for the MTA; the other half comes in the form of funding. Hochul halted congestion pricing, which aims to reap $1 billion in funding every year for the MTA through tolls from drivers entering Manhattan, just weeks before it was scheduled to start on June 30.
A taxi passes under an unused congestion pricing gantry.File Photo by Dean Moses
Hochul’s decision immediately threw the MTA’s capital plans into uncertainty and blew open a $15 billion hole that needed to be filled. Despite the governor’s promises that alternative funding would be found, no such plans have yet been proposed from Albany.
MTA Chief Financial Officer Kevin Willens said last week that the authority would propose issuing $10 billion in MTA-issued bonds to help fund the 2025-2029 Capital Plan. He also said the MTA expects to receive around $21 billion from federal funding and state and city bonds but noted that the agency has not yet put forward specific numbers because funding sources have not been approved.
Even so, Willens added, the MTA is not proposing a complete funding package in the plan; rather, the agency was focusing on the projects and requirements it needs to address over the next five years.
Willens said there is currently a deficit of around $33 billion and acknowledged that the remainder of the funding sources need to be identified.
The MTA quoted a JP Morgan analysis that stated that annual capital expenditures ranging between $16 billion and $23 billion were required if the MTA was to match comparable peers. A separate independent review from the Office of the New York State Comptroller estimated that the total capital needed for the 2025-2029 plan ranged between $57.8 billion and $92.2 billion.
Those planning to travel for the Labor Day weekend may find that Megabus is not as simple an option as they remember. With its parent company Coach USA declaring bankruptcy in June, its routes were taken over by other bus companies this month.
Peter Pan Bus Lines is now serving routes that go between Philly, New York City, Baltimore and Washington D.C., while Fullington Trailways will allow travel between Philly, New York, State College and Pittsburgh.
Passengers who booked their trips on or before Aug. 15 were contacted to reschedule their trips. The Megabus website is still live and allows anyone to reserve trips, albeit for Peter Pan and Fullington travel services. Routes that served stops including Dallas, Atlanta, Richmond and several other cities in the southern United States were discontinued.
Currently, the Megabus stops in Philly are at Schuylkill Avenue and Walnut Street, close to William H. Gray 30th Street Station, and in Northern Liberties at 520 North Christopher Columbus Blvd. Previously, the second Megabus stop in Philly was located on 6th and Market streets.
Megabus parent company Coach USA commenced Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in June, citing lower ridership and demand in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The shifting locations of inner city bus stops and the sudden changes in bus routes are part of accumulating issues for bus riders traveling to and from Philly. In June 2023, the city’s Greyhound station closed after 35 years.
Temporary bus stops on the curbsides of streets like Market Street have caused congestion, and passengers have lacked shelter or sitting areas while waiting. Philadelphia still lacks a proper bus terminal after the Greyhound station closed.
Drivers passing through school zones in Howard County in Maryland this week will see some extra police cars, cameras and new lighted stop signs to help keep students safe as they head back to class.
Drivers passing through school zones in Howard County, Maryland, this week will see some extra police cars, cameras and new lighted stop signs to help keep students safe as they head back to class.
The extra enforcement is part of an annual plan called Helping Arriving Students Through Enforcement, or H.A.S.T.E., to keep the roads around schools safer for students, parents and children.
Additional police officers will be on roadways around schools in Howard County for the first three weeks of the new school year.
“Officers will focus on drivers who are speeding, failing to stop for pedestrians or driving distracted in those areas,” Howard County police said in a news release. “They also will be checking for seat belt and child safety seat use to ensure all occupants are properly restrained.”
Additionally, police officers are reminding drivers that the county’s school buses have cameras on the outside to catch vehicles from passing buses illegally. A fine for that is $250 in the county.
Getting caught by the speed cameras in school zones will cost drivers a $40 fine. The county posts where those speed cameras are and where they are moved online.
The crossing guards on roads surrounding the schools will also be a little easier to see. They will be provided lighted stop signs using funds that were collected from fines through HCPD’s Automated Enforcement programs.
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After Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles asked for a moment of silence to recognize the Marshall Middle School student who died this week after a medical emergency, public speakers at Thursday night’s school board meeting lined up with their latest round of complaints most of which had to do with A/C and buses.
Specifically: Poor or missing A/C in the classrooms, a new bus routing system gone awry and the intersection of the district’s two biggest problems according to its call-in centers with the lack of A/C on some of its buses.
Parent Teisha Mayes said several classes at Crockett Elementary, which is a new New Education System school this year, have reached 82 degrees, forcing , for instance, her daughter dance class to move out into the hallways where it is cooler. “During ‘Meet the Teacher’ we saw new spin bikes. Why weren’t these funds used to fix the A/C?”
While Miles tried to focus on the “quality instruction” that he said was taking place from the first day of class this past Monday, even he had to admit that what was going on with the new school bus transportation system contracted with EduLog was inexcusable.
For a superintendent who prides himself on systems and efficiencies, the absolute mess that has resulted from a money-saving consolidation of routes with fewer bus drivers is particularly hard to defend, although he assured those present that the route rollout is getting better each day.
As of Thursday, some parents are still waiting for their children’s bus routes to be assigned. Others received some other child’s information. Some got two sets of route instructions – one right, one wrong. Instructions to parents that their children should get on any bus that comes along just added to the confusion and frustration. And the fact that parents are reporting that some of the buses have no working A/C hasn’t helped matters.
Thanks to being named a District of Innovation, HISD was able to start school two weeks earlier than it had before. But with that comes more weeks of higher temperatures for school kids.
During the first week of school, in some of the schools children were being shuttled to other parts of their buildings as temperatures mounted above the 82 degree mark that Miles has decreed is too hot for students to learn and teachers to teach. He said they start monitoring classrooms when they 78 degrees.
And he pointed out again that many of the district’s schools house aging HVAC systems.
The district’s new defined autonomy policy also came under fire. In it, A and B schools are given far mor leeway on budgets and instruction than the C, D and F-rated schools.
As speaker Lisa Robinson put it: “The defined autonomy policy is separate and unequal. A fourth grader at Pew is bored to tears while reading slide decks while his cousin at River Oaks visits her school library to check out a book of their choice. A freshman at Westbury only reads short passages in English class while her neighbor at Lamar discusses full novels in preparation for college level work.
“A first grader at Longfellow sits in a sterile classroom in the name of ‘limiting distractions’ while his brother at Twain enjoys the benefits of a warm and nurturing space,” she said calling the earned autonomy approach “morally wrong.”
The deletion of librarians and libraries from HISD schools at Miles’ direction continued to be a source of many complaints as well as criticism about the lack of landscaping and mowing at some schools.
Bellaire City Councilwoman Jackie Georgiou questioned HISD’s commitment to her city and compared the grounds maintenance at Bellaire High School to its across the street neighbor Episcopal High School.
“Episcopal High School across the street from Bellaire High School shines like a shining beacon next to the negligence of HISD. It has come to my attention there was no running water on Bellaire High School fields for some time and there were a couple days here recently where classrooms were at 85 degrees or higher. These are health and safety hazards and we are unacceptable.”
Miles, for his part, said he thought academic instruction was far more important than the grounds outside the district’s schools. He once again pointed out that HISD has 274 schools and that after the derecho storm, Hurricane Beryl and the days of rain that followed that it was difficult to tackle everything on all the grounds that needed doing.
But as in other meetings, many students and parents are not excited about Miles’ New Education System with its daily timed testing. And one student was unhappy about being sent to the Team Center for extra worksheets after scoring well on the daily tests and about the requirement in NES schools that elementary students carry orange traffic cones with them when they are going to use the restrooms.
“I have always loved school and I was very excited to start on Monday,” student Laney Piper told the board. “But now I’m not excited anymore because now school feels rushed and not fun. The timers are stressful and distracting and the Team Center is boring and it makes me want to get bad grades on my DOL [Demonstrating of Learning quiz) so I don’t have to go. The bathroom cones are very unsanitary. How do you know if everyone’s washing their hands?”
“The bathroom cones are very unsanitary. How do you know if everyone’s washing their hands?”
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Once again, throughout the meeting public speakers said could not support the $4.4 billion bond proposal the board approved at last week’s meeting because they did not trust Miles and his administration to make good use of the money. The proposal which is the largest bond proposal ever for HISD will go before voters at the November 5 election.
Longtime HISD bond supporter Sheila Whitford says she can’t say yes this time.
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Sheila Whitford told the board she has voted in favor of every HISD bond proposal since 1990. “However currently I do not see a fiscally responsible board. Library books removed from how many schools. Where are the books? Where is the paper trail for these books?
“I want to apologize to the children in Houston schools who need this bond but I will vote no. Our children do not have responsible people handling their money.”
Complaints also continued about the mass exodus of educators from HISD in the past year – said to include some 4,700 teachers. Some left because they did not want to work under Miles’ New Education System requiring daily testing and others because they were given the choice of resigning or being fired. Several speakers alsoobjected to giving Miles and his administration the right to sell off HISD property, saying once sold, the land could never be returned to HISD.
Traffic moves along South Federal Boulevard in Denver on Monday, Aug. 12, 2024. The Colorado Department of Transportation intends to convert one of the three southbound lanes, seen here at right, to a bus lane, and widen the road to add a northbound bus lane, seen at left.
Nathaniel Minor/CPR News
The Colorado Department of Transportation wants to widen over two miles of South Federal Boulevard to make space for bus lanes.
Project leaders say the extra space will be needed to preserve two vehicle lanes in each direction on a busy stretch of Federal. Cutting the road down to one lane would send too many drivers onto side streets, they say.
“There are places where traffic calming through road diets and otherwise is the best option,” said CDOT Executive Director Shoshana Lew, adding: “But that’s not always the answer.”
But some bus riders, advocates and at least one member of the Denver City Council worry the changes would make Federal Boulevard even more dangerous than it already is.
The new bus lanes are a key part of a planned bus rapid transit line along nearly 18 miles of Federal.
Several bus rapid transit lines are planned on arterial streets across the Denver metro that, like Federal, double as state highways.
Unlike local buses, the rapid routes — known as BRT lines — are generally designed for speed and comfort. They typically stop at amenity-rich stations that are spaced further apart, buses are given priority at intersections, and passengers can board through any of the vehicle’s doors.
In some cases, buses also get their own lanes. Bus lanes are often the most controversial part of a BRT project because they have the greatest potential to disrupt the status quo on busy, dangerous roads.
Drivers cross 8th Avenue on Federal Boulevard. May 8, 2024.Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
CDOT’s preferred plan for Federal, if it can find the money for it, would split the difference between a road diet that would surely make motorists fume and a full-bore expansion of the road.
Under a developing plan that CDOT officials stressed isn’t yet final, the agency would convert one of the three southbound vehicle lanes between Alameda and Jewell avenues to a bus lane. CDOT would use mostly existing right-of-way to widen the road just enough to accommodate a new northbound bus lane over roughly the same length. The road would be widened between Evans and Jewell avenues for bus lanes in each direction.
Bus riders worry a wider Federal will be more dangerous.
A Denverite reporter roamed South Federal for a few hours on Monday morning and spoke with a handful of bus riders about the prospect of a wider road.
“I think it’d be a bad idea,” said Kelly Faison as she prepared to board an RTD bus on south Federal on Monday. “[It would] probably be more dangerous.”
Many riders declined to be recorded and refused to give their names, but nearly all said safety was a top concern.
“Wider lanes just means more time that it would take for a pedestrian to cross, and they’re already being run over,” said Carolyn, an elderly woman who declined to give her last name but said she walked across Federal often.
Carolyn said she tries to look in “every direction the whole time that I’m crossing because somebody act like they want to run me down even as I have the light.”
Denver planners have long identified South Federal as one of the most dangerous corridors in the city. Its recent Vision Zero action plan called for “immediate remedial safety work” on it, saying the stretch between Alameda and Yale saw eight traffic-related deaths between 2016 and 2021.
Jamie Torres, the city councilor who represents some neighborhoods along Federal, said she is “totally against” widening the boulevard — even for the addition of bus lanes.
“I think residents are exactly on point around how difficult it is already to cross a six-lane highway,” Torres said.
Then-City Council president Jamie Torres attends council’s weekly working group meeting with Mayor Mike Johnston’ administration on homelessness and migrant arrivals. Dec. 12, 2023.Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
Ryan Noles, CDOT’s bus rapid transit program manager, said they are also considering new safety features for pedestrians — rebuilt sidewalks, signals timed to give walkers more time to cross, and mid-block crossings, for example.
Jill Locantore, executive director of the Denver Streets Partnership, called such changes “helpful but marginal.” The root problem, she said, is Federal’s width.
“Because that encourages drivers to go faster and just increases pedestrian exposure to traffic,” Locantore said.
Locantore wants planners to go all-in on buses, like they are on Colfax.
The Denver-led East Colfax BRT project will narrow the road to just one vehicle lane in each direction from Broadway to the Aurora border.
“If it can work on Colfax, why can’t it work on Federal?” Locantore asked,
A rendering of a possible bus rapid transit design on Colfax. (Denver Public Works)
But there are significant differences between the two roads. Colfax is a denser, more walkable corridor that was originally built around streetcars. Large parking lots and low-slung commercial buildings are far more common on Federal.
State data says Colfax sees less traffic on its soon-to-be-slimmer stretch, peaking at 30,000 vehicles a day near East High School, than the segment of Federal in question which tops out at 40,000 vehicles daily. The federal government says road diets typically are implemented on roads with daily traffic of 25,000 vehicles or fewer.
Mimi Luong, who owns Truong An Gifts in the Far East Center, said she’s supportive of better bus service on Federal — she’s suggested new Asian-themed bus stations too. She just visited South Korea and loved using the bus system there.
But she said Federal needs to stay at least two lanes across.
Mimi Luong stands in front of a Lunar New Year banner hanging on her family’s Truong An Gifts shop in the Far East Center as they prepare for the big holiday weekend. Feb. 8, 2024.Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
“Honestly, this is Colorado,” she said, adding: “You need a car for everywhere you go.”
Torres said the idea of a one-lane Federal Boulevard seemed “pretty limited,” but said CDOT’s have-it-both-ways proposal makes it seem like they aren’t confident in BRT’s ability to shift drivers to transit riders.
“It seems like we don’t quite know that BRT will work or not,” Torres said.
Lew, CDOT’s executive director, said her goal is to give travelers “as many safe sustainable choices as possible.” What CDOT eventually does with Federal will also be determined by how much money the federal government pitches in, Lew added.
In a last weekend push, Houston ISD got most of its students assigned to bus routes – 700 kids still didn’t know how they were getting to class – but Monday morning’s effort was much improved from the week before when one mother was told by a district employee that “10,000” kids still didn’t have assigned routes.
A quick survey of bus and student arrivals Monday morning showed the usual successes and bobbles. Josue Avelai and his younger brother David were waiting outside Sharpstown High for their bus to take them to Carnegie Vanguard High School. The bus was supposed to be there at 7:45 but it was already past 8:15 with no transfer pickup in sight. Asked if this was usual, Josue, a junior, said no, this was not.
At issue may be the money-saving consolidation of bus systems announced by Superintendent Mike Miles in late July. At the same time, it was announced that any students going to school choice schools would have to provide their own transportation for up to three miles from their homes. Previously that had been two miles.
The district has said it would save $3 million consolidating and shortening distances that school choice students are on buses with further transportation efficiencies estimated to save the district a total of $10 million in 2024-25.
By the following school year, she said, “The district hopes to take our transportation costs down from roughly $56 million to $40 million.”
All this may not be good news for bus drivers. We talked to one bus driver over the weekend who showed up on August 5 to get their route assignment only to be told there was no route for that person and many other drivers. Instead, for now, they are being assigned to ride along on buses to handle any misbehaving students.
The driver was concerned that they wouldn’t get enough hours in the new position to make their rent. The drivers were told that later in the year when it gets colder they may pick up driving assignments.
Over at North Forest arrivals were going smoothly with the exception of one bus that had to be turned around and redirected as it entered the student parking lot rather than the bus drop-off lane.
Last week, Superintendent Mike Miles has predicted that all campuses would be up and running on the first day of school. The one exception, he said, would be Chysalis Middle School whose students is moving across the parking lot to the Lockwood modulars explaining that the modulars are better there.
Shortly after 9 p.m. Sunday, HISD sent out the following email:
In preparation for the start of the 2024-2025 school year, Houston Independent School District has been hard at work ensuring that all students, educators, and families have a great first day. So far, the district has assigned bus routes to over 17,000 students for the upcoming year and has communicated these routes to families through several communications.
Around 700 students are still being assigned their stops. The district has reached out to all of these families to let them know that if they have not received their school bus route and stop information, they can call their campus or one of HISD’s transportation services helplines for assistance between 4:30 a.m. and 7:00 p.m.
Any student who has not been assigned a route may get on a bus at any stop or route serving their campus. Drivers will pick students up and drop them off even if they are not assigned to a route or stop. The district expects all students to be assigned a permanent stop within 72 hours of their entry into the transportation assignment system.
Families who need further information about their bus stop can call their campus or one of HISD’s transportation services helplines for assistance between 4:30 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. at one of the numbers below, based on the first number of their route:
At a hastily called Zoom meeting Tuesday afternoon, Houston ISD Chief of Public Affairs and Communications Alexandra “Alex” Elizondo answered 15 minutes of questions from the media during which she assured those online that changing bus routes right before the start of school was normal.
She expanded upon the late night announcement Monday in which the district said it would save $3 million consolidating and shortening distances that school choice students are on buses with further transportation efficiencies estimated to save the district a total of $10 million in 2024-25.
By the following school year, she said, “The district hopes to take our transportation costs down from roughly $56 million to $40 million.”
It still remained somewhat confusing — as we wrote yesterday — as to how the district will shorten the time traveling in buses (the average school choice student ride will decrease from 1 hour and 45 minutes to 1 hour and 15 minutes) while providing fewer routes. (508 to a projected 423).
Despite the fewer routes, the number of bus drivers will not be diminished, she said. Also, all special ed students and zoned students will not see their HISD transportation change in any way, Elizondo said.
Echoing the press release that went out Monday, Elizondo said HISD could no longer afford doing what no other area school district is doing in providing lengthy trips across town for a subsection of its student population.
“HISD is the only district in the Houston metro area that transports all of our magnet and specialty school students and all of our students that opt into our school choice program. We are committed to continuing to do that but we have to consolidate routes to make that better for kids, to reduce their ride time and better for the district to save money.”
Calling it a “minor adjustment,” in the HISD staetment yesterday, “Student bus stopes will now be within a three mile radius of the student’s home address. (Previously it was a two mile radius).” This affects about 3,000 students, Elizondo said.
At the same time Elizondo insisted that this was in no way being done to discourage participation in the school choice program, which she says HISD continues to support.
“HISD wants to make sure that every child has the shortest amount of time on the bus as possible and that we’re increasing the efficiency of our transportation system.
“Historically transportation has been a big issue in HISD. It has not been reliable. It has not been efficient.” She said an efficiency report done by Superintendent Mike Miles ‘ administration determined that the district was spending $50 million to transport 9,000 kids each year. “And kids were spending way too long on the bus.”
“Not a lot of kids were on way too many buses going all over the city.”
Buses will be making fewer stops with increased ridership on each bus. “The bus routes before were not well planned.” The bus stops will be at high schools or middle schools or their feeder patternor at a community center or library, for instance, she said.
Parents will be notified about their children’s bus routes by the end of July, Elizondo said, adding that there will be “a couple more” transportation changes to come in the 2024-25 school year.
The $16M contract and a new GMV office will establish a permanent footprint for the company in the New York Metro area
LOS ANGELES, May 29, 2024 (Newswire.com)
– Westchester County is home to a diverse population of more than 1 million people, with rail and bus connections into New York City. Following a competitive procurement, the County selected GMV to upgrade its transit technology platform to deliver more efficient service, better oversight of operations and improve the customer experience on Bee Line buses. GMV has more than 25 years of experience delivering technology solutions for buses and trains in places like Los Angeles, Barcelona, Warsaw and Sydney, and the company is excited to bring this technology to New York.
On each Bee Line bus, the company will install the GMV Hub, a rugged vehicle computer that is specifically designed and built by GMV for transit systems to ensure robust performance and long service life. The GMV Hub uses an open architecture to control a range of onboard systems including GPS, bus operator touchscreen, automatic passenger counters, next stop announcements and a dedicated sensor for precision tracking in indoor bus depots. The GMV Hub also functions as a digital video recorded (DVR) to store footage from security cameras on each bus. This multifunction device significantly reduces the project’s equipment cost and delivers great value to the County.
ITS Suite is GMV’s cloud native software that delivers a suite of applications from GMV and its partners to enhance the County’s visibility and control of their bus operations. Each app is focused on a key transit function, and all apps are integrated for real-time data exchange:
Planning and scheduling software will generate an optimized set of routes and schedules to serve customers as efficiently as possible and reduce operating costs.
Dispatch software enables control center staff to monitor the entire fleet and take quick action to keep buses moving.
Garage management software will choreograph bus movements inside the depots to ensure vehicles are ready for service.
Video management software enables live remote viewing of bus cameras and secure storage and playback of video evidence.
GMV “plays well with others,” and this philosophy enables the company to deliver best in class products from third-party partners in a single, coordinated solution. A modern technical architecture built on cloud computing, microservices, and application program interfaces (APIs) makes this collaboration possible, and GMV’s project management skills ensure successful delivery.
GMV’s continued expansion in the United States includes opening a New York office to support Westchester County and other clients on the east coast. “Even with the best technology in the world, excellent Customer Service is what makes projects successful and builds long term relationships with our clients. Face to face, in-person collaboration with clients is critical, and we’re excited to grow our presence in New York,” said Ian Sephton, CEO of GMV’s North American transportation business.
“We are thrilled to announce Westchester’s Bee-Line Bus System will be getting this cutting-edge technology upgrade, which will improve customer safety, real-time operations management and efficiency. The comprehensive upgrade also supports our commitment to sustainability with zero-emission fleet integrations and will enhance the experience for the everyday rider by incorporating modern mobility solutions”, said County Executive George Latimer.
TBILISI — Georgia’s annual LGBT+ Pride event was evacuated by the police on Saturday after hundreds of counter-protesters stormed the site.
In a statement, organisers of the festival in the capital of Tbilisi announced that they had been forced to shut down the annual festivities after the authorities failed to maintain the perimeter.
“Today’s developments indicate that today’s planned events were pre-coordinated and agreed upon between the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the violent group Alt-Info,” Tbilisi Pride said.
The interim deputy minister of internal affairs, Aleksandre Darakhvelidze, said that “the pride festival was to take place in an open territory” and therefore authorities were “unable to provide protection.”
Smoke rose above the site, a field just outside the city, as LGBT+ rainbow flags were burned and right-wing activists danced to traditional Georgian folk music. Attendees had been told to board buses for safety moments before.
Reacting to the attacks, the British Ambassador to Georgia, Mark Clayton, said he was “shocked and saddened to see that despite the planning and preventive measures, Tbilisi Pride festival was cancelled due to safety risks for participants.”
Shocked and saddened to see that despite the planning & preventive measures, @Tbilisipride festival was cancelled due to safety risks for participants. I call on authorities to ensure that all who broke law & aggressively disrupted a peaceful gathering will be brought to justice. pic.twitter.com/6rOsPQqm8n
He called on the Georgian government to “ensure that all who broke law and aggressively disrupted a peaceful gathering will be brought to justice.”
Despite the condemnations, Shalva Papuashvili, chairman of Georgia’s parliament, insisted “the police had an appropriate response” and “properly ensured the safety of both participants and journalists.”
Rémy Bony, executive director of LGBT+ NGO Forbidden Colours, said that EU countries should give refuge to the organisers at their embassies because “their lives are in danger. Thousands of anti-LGBTIQ hooligans are hunting them down.”
🏳️🌈🇬🇪The Embassies of the EU member states in Georgia must open their doors for the organisers of Tbilisi Pride immediately.
Their lives are in danger. Thousands of anti-LGBTIQ hooligans are hunting them down. Georgian authorities are not able to provide safety. pic.twitter.com/8cYtIoRP6N
Alt-Info, a far-right group with close ties to the Georgian Orthodox Church, has repeatedly organized counter-protests against the annual festivities. In 2021, dozens of journalists were injured at the annual event and a cameraman later died.
In the wake of the violence that year, the EU mission to the country issued a strongly-worded letter to the government in which they decried “direct attacks on Georgia’s democratic and pro-European aspirations” and criticized the burning of an EU flag outside the parliament.
Speaking to POLITICO from the crowd on Saturday, Levan Chachua, the leader of the nationalist, religious Georgian Idea political group, said: “I would refuse to … join the EU if that will prevent us from entering the heavenly kingdom.”
Georgia has a stated intention to join the EU. But Brussels has warned that its government, which has sought closer ties with Russia since the start of the war in Ukraine, has presided over a significant backsliding in human rights and civil liberties.
LIVERPOOL, England — On the long picket line outside the gates of Liverpool’s Peel Port, rain-soaked dock workers warm themselves with cups of tea as they listen to 1980s pop.
Dozens of buses, cars and trucks honk in solidarity as they pass.
Dockers’ strikes are not new to Liverpool, nor is depravation. But this latest walk-out at Britain’s fourth-largest port is part of something much bigger, a great wave of public and private sector strikes taking place across the U.K. Railways, postal services, law courts and garbage collections are among the many public services grinding to a halt.
The immediate cause of the discontent, as elsewhere, is the rising cost of living. Inflation in the United Kingdom breached the 10 percent mark this year, with wages failing to keep pace.
But the U.K.’s economic woes long predate the current crisis. For more than a decade, Britain has been beset by weak economic growth, anaemic productivity, and stagnant private and public sector investment. Since 2016, its political leadership has been in a state of Brexit-induced flux.
Half a century after U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger looked at the U.K.’s 1970s economic malaise and declared that “Britain is a tragedy,” the United Kingdom is heading to be the sick man of Europe once again.
The immediate cause of Liverpool dockers’ discontent that brought them to strike is the rising cost of living. | Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
Here in Liverpool, the “scars run very deep,” said Paul Turking, a dock worker in his late 30s. British voters, he added, have “been misled” by politicians’ promises to “level up” the country by investing heavily in regional economies. Conservatives “will promise you the world and then pull the carpet out from under your feet,” he complained.
“There’s no middle class no more,” said John Delij, a Peel Port veteran of 15 years. He sees the cost-of-living crisis and economic stagnation whittling away the middle rung of the economic ladder.
“How many billionaires do we have?” Delij asked, wondering how Britain could be the sixth-largest economy in the world with a record number of billionaires when food bank use is 35 percent above its pre-pandemic level. “The workers put money back into the economy,” he said.
What would they do if they were in charge? “Invest in affordable housing,” said Turking. “Housing and jobs.”
Falling behind
The British economy has been struck by particular turbulence over recent weeks. The cost of government borrowing soared in the wake of former PM Liz Truss’ disastrous mini-budget on September 23, with the U.K.’s central bank forced to step in and steady the bond markets.
But while the swift installation of Rishi Sunak, the former chancellor, as prime minister seems to have restored a modicum of calm, the economic backdrop remains bleak. Spending and welfare cuts are coming. Taxes are certain to rise. And the underlying problems cut deep.
U.K. productivity growth since the financial crisis has trailed that of comparator nations such as the U.S., France and Germany. As such, people’s median incomes also lag behind neighboring countries over the same period. Only Russia is forecast to have worse economic growth among the G20 nations in 2023.
In 1976, the U.K. — facing stagflation, a global energy crisis, a current account deficit and labor unrest — had to be bailed out by the International Monetary Fund. It feels far-fetched, but today some are warning it could happen again.
The U.K. is spluttering its way through an illness brought about in part through a series of self-inflicted wounds that have undermined the basic pillars of any economy: confidence and stability.
The political and economic malaise is such that it has prompted unwanted comparisons with countries whose misfortunes Britain once watched amusedly from afar.
“The existential risk to the U.K. … is not that we’re suddenly going to go off an economic cliff, or that the country’s going to descend into civil war or whatever,” said Jonathan Portes, professor of economics at King’s College London. “It’s that we will become like Italy.”
Portes, of course, does not mean a country blessed with good weather and fine food — but an economy hobbled by persistently low growth, caught in a dysfunctional political loop that lurches between “corrupt and incompetent right-wing populists” and “well-intentioned technocrats who can’t actually seem to turn the ship around.”
“That’s not the future that we want in the U.K,” he said.
Reviving the U.K.’s flatlining economy will not happen overnight. As Italy’s experience demonstrates, it’s one thing to diagnose an illness — another to cure it.
Experts speak of an unbalanced model heavily reliant upon Britain’s services sector and beset with low productivity, a result of years of underinvestment and a flexible labor market which delivers low unemployment but often insecure and low-paid work.
“We’re not investing in skills; businesses aren’t investing,” said Xiaowei Xu, senior research economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies. “It’s not that surprising that we’re not getting productivity growth.”
But any attempt to address the country’s ailments will require its economic stewards to understand their underlying causes — and those stretch back at least to the first truly global crisis of the 21st century.
Crash and burn
The 2008 financial crisis hammered economies around the world, and the U.K. was no exception. Its economy shrunk by more than 6 percent between the first quarter of 2008 and the second quarter of 2009. Five years passed before it returned to its pre-recession size.
For Britain, the crisis in fact began in September 2007, a year before the collapse of Lehman Brothers, when wobbles in the U.S. subprime mortgage market sparked a run on the British bank Northern Rock.
The U.K. discovered it was particularly vulnerable to such a shock. Over the second half of the 20th century, its manufacturing base had largely eroded as its services sector expanded, with financial and professional services and real estate among the key drivers. As the Bank of England put it: “The interconnectedness of global finance meant that the U.K. financial system had become dangerously exposed to the fall-out from the U.S. sub-prime mortgage market.”
The crisis was a “big shock to the U.K.’s broad economic model,” said John Springford, from the Centre for European Reform. Productivity took an immediate hit as exports of financial services plunged. It never fully recovered.
“Productivity before the crash was basically, ‘Can we create lots and lots of debt and generate lots and lots of income on the back of this? Can we invent collateralized debt obligations and trade them in vast volumes?’” said James Meadway, director of the Progressive Economy Forum and a former adviser to Labour’s left-wing former shadow chancellor, John McDonnell.
A post-crash clampdown on City practises had an obvious impact.
“This is a major part of the British economy, so if it’s suddenly not performing the way it used to — for good reasons — things overall are going to look a bit shaky,” Meadway added.
The shock did not contain itself to the economy. In a pattern that would be repeated, and accentuated, in the coming years, it sent shuddering waves through the country’s political system, too.
The 2010 election was fought on how to best repair Britain’s broken economy. In 2009, the U.K. had the second-highest budget deficit in the G7, trailing only the U.S., according to the U.K. government’s own fiscal watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).
The Conservative manifesto declared “our economy is overwhelmed by debt,” and promised to close the U.K.’s mounting budget deficit in five years with sharp public sector cuts. The incumbent Labour government responded by pledging to halve the deficit by 2014 with “deeper and tougher” cuts in public spending than the significant reductions overseen by former Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.
The election returned a hung parliament, with the Conservatives entering into a coalition with the Liberal Democrats. The age of austerity was ushered in.
Austerity nation
Defenders of then-Chancellor George Osborne’s austerity program insist it saved Britain from the sort of market-led calamity witnessed this fall, and put the U.K. economy in a condition to weather subsequent global crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the fallout from the war in Ukraine.
“That hard work made policies like furlough and the energy price cap possible,” said Rupert Harrison, one of Osborne’s closest Treasury advisers.
Pointing to the brutal market response to Truss’ freewheeling economic plans, Harrison praised the “wisdom” of the coalition in prioritizing tackling the U.K.’s debt-GDP ratio. “You never know when you will be vulnerable to a loss of credibility,” he noted.
But Osborne’s detractors argue austerity — which saw deep cuts to community services such as libraries and adult social care; courts and prisons services; road maintenance; the police and so much more — also stripped away much of the U.K.’s social fabric, causing lasting and profound economic damage. A recent study claimed austerity was responsible for hundreds of thousands of excess deaths.
Under Osborne’s plan, three-quarters of the fiscal consolidation was to be delivered by spending cuts. With the exception of the National Health Service, schools and aid spending, all government budgets were slashed; public sector pay was frozen; taxes (mainly VAT) rose.
But while the government came close to delivering its fiscal tightening target for 2014-15, “the persistent underperformance of productivity and real GDP over that period meant the deficit remained higher than initially expected,” the OBR said. By his own measure, Osborne had failed, and was forced to push back his deficit-elimination target further. Austerity would have to continue into the second half of the 2010s.
Many economists contend that the fiscal belt-tightening sucked demand out of the economy and worsened Britain’s productivity crisis by stifling investment. “That certainly did hit U.K. growth and did some permanent damage,” said King’s College London’s Portes.
“If that investment isn’t there, other people start to find it less attractive to open businesses,” former Labour aide Meadway added. “If your railways aren’t actually very good … it does add up to a problem for businesses.”
A 2015 study found U.K. productivity, as measured by GDP per hour worked, was now lower than in the rest of the G7 by a whopping 18 percentage points.
“Frankly, nobody knows the whole answer,” Osborne said of Britain’s productivity conundrum in May 2015. “But what I do know is that I’d much rather have the productivity challenge than the challenge of mass unemployment.”
‘Jobs miracle’
Rising employment was indeed a signature achievement of the coalition years. Unemployment dropped below 6 percent across the U.K. by the end of the parliament in 2015, with just Germany and Austria achieving a lower rate of joblessness among the then-28 EU states. Real-term wages, however, took nearly a decade to recover to pre-crisis levels.
Economists like Meadway contend that the rise in employment came with a price, courtesy of Britain’s famously flexible labor market. He points to a Sports Direct warehouse in the East Midlands, where a 2015 Guardian investigation revealed the predominantly immigrant workforce was paid illegally low wages, while the working conditions were such that the facility was nicknamed “the gulag.”
The warehouse, it emerged, was built on a former coal mine, and for Meadway the symbolism neatly charts the U.K.’s move away from traditional heavy industry toward more precarious service sector employment. “It’s not a secure job anymore,” he said. “Once you have a very flexible labor market, the pressure on employers to pay more and the capacity for workers to bargain for more is very much reduced.”
Throughout the period, the Bank of England — the U.K.’s central bank — kept interest rates low and pursued a policy of quantitative easing. “That tends to distort what happens in the economy,” argued Meadway. QE, he said, is a “good [way of] getting money into the hands of people who already have quite a lot” and “doesn’t do much for people who depend on wage income.”
Meanwhile — whether necessary or not — the U.K.’s austerity policies undoubtedly worsened a decades-long trend of underinvestment in skills and research and development (Britain lags only Italy in the G7 on R&D spending). At British schools, there was a 9 percent real terms fall in per-pupil spending between 2009 and 2019, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies’ Xu. “As countries get richer, usually you start spending more on education,” Xu noted.
Two senior ministers in the coalition government — David Gauke, who served in the Treasury throughout Osborne’s tenure, and ex-Lib Dem Business Secretary Vince Cable — have both accepted that the government might have focused more on higher taxation and less on cuts to public spending. But both also insisted the U.K had ultimately been correct to prioritize putting its public finances on a sounder footing.
It was February 2018 before Britain finally achieved Osborne’s goal of eliminating the deficit on its day-to-day budget.
Austerity was coming to an end, at last. But Osborne had already left the Treasury, 18 months earlier — swept away along with Cameron in the wake of a seismic national uprising.
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David Cameron had won the 2015 election outright, despite — or perhaps because of — the stringent spending cuts his coalition government had overseen, more of which had been pledged in his 2015 manifesto. Also promised, of course, was a public vote on Britain’s EU membership.
The reasons for the leave vote that followed were many and complex — but few doubt that years of underinvestment in poorer parts of the U.K. were among them.
Regardless, the 2016 EU referendum triggered a period of political acrimony and turbulence not seen in Westminster for generations. With no pre-agreed model of what Brexit should actually entail, the U.K.’s future relationship with the EU became the subject of heated and protracted debate. After years of wrangling, Britain finally left the bloc at the end of January 2020, severing ties in a more profound way than many had envisaged.
While the twin crises of COVID and Ukraine have muddled the picture, most economists agree Brexit has already had a significant impact on the U.K. economy. The size of Britain’s trade flows relative to GDP has fallen further than other G7 countries, business investment growth trails the likes of Japan, South Korea and Italy, and the OBR has stuck by its March 2020 prediction that Brexit would reduce productivity and U.K. GDP by 4 percent.
Perhaps more significantly, Brexit has ushered in a period of political instability. As prime ministers come and go (the U.K. is now on its fifth since 2016), economic programs get neglected, or overturned. Overseas investors look on with trepidation.
“The evidence that the referendum outcome, and the kind of uncertainty and change in policy that it created, have led to low investment and low growth in the U.K. is fairly compelling,” said professor Stephen Millard, deputy director at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research.
Beyond the instability, the broader impact of the vote to leave remains contentious.
Portes argued — as many Remain supporters also do — that much harm was done by the decision to leave the EU’s single market. “It’s the facts, not the uncertainty that in my view is responsible for most of the damage,” he said.
Brexit supporters dismiss such claims.
“It’s difficult statistically to find much significant effect of Brexit on anything,” said professor Patrick Minford, founder member of Economists for Brexit. “There’s so much else going on, so much volatility.”
Minford, an economist favored by ex-PM Truss, acknowledged that “Brexit is disruptive in the short run, so it’s perfectly possible that you would get some short-run disruption.” But he added: “It was a long-term policy decision.”
Where next?
Plenty of economists can rattle off possible solutions, although actually delivering them has thus far evaded Britain’s political class. “It’s increasing investment, having more of a focus on the long-term, it’s having economic strategies that you set out and actually commit to over time,” says the IFS’ Xu. “As far as possible, it’s creating more certainty over economic policy.”
But in seeking to bring stability after the brief but chaotic Truss era, new U.K. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has signaled a fresh period of austerity is on the way to plug the latest hole in the nation’s finances. Leveling Up Secretary Michael Gove told Times Radio that while, ideally, you wouldn’t want to reduce long-term capital investments, he was sure some spending on big projects “will be cut.”
This could be bad news for many of the U.K.’s long-awaited infrastructure schemes such as the HS2 high-speed rail line, which has been in the works for almost 15 years and already faces a familiar mix of local resistance, vested interests, and a sclerotic planning system.
“We have a real problem in the sense that the only way to really durably raise productivity growth for this country is for investments to pick up,” said Springford, from the Centre for European Reform. “And the headwinds to that are quite significant.”
For dock workers at Liverpool’s Peel Port, the prospect of a fresh round of austerity amid a cost-of-living crisis is too much to bear. “Workers all over this country need to stand up for themselves and join a union,” insisted Delij.
For him, it’s all about priorities — and the arguments still echo back to the great crash of 15 years ago. “They bailed the bankers out in 2007,” he said, “and can’t bail hungry people out now.”
