Department Of Transportation U S

Transportation Secretary Federico Pena and David Hinson, head of the Federal Aviation Administration, say last month's crash of a ValuJet Airlines plane in the Florida Everglades has brought to light a "new" problem: the airline industry's practice of using outside contractors rather than their own personnel to handle such sensitive jobs as airplane maintenance. But 10 years ago, FAA safety official Anthony J.

The federal government has offered Los Angeles County $213 million to convert carpool lanes to special, congestion-pricing toll lanes on three freeways, according to county government documents. The freeways involved first would be short stretches of Interstates 10 and 210 in the San Gabriel Valley, and then, if any money remained, part of the 110 south of downtown Los Angeles. The federal funding, however, would come to L.A.

Hundreds of times a year, workers in the package delivery business find steaming, dripping, flaming or disintegrated cardboard boxes piled in their trucks or riding toward them on conveyor belts. Shippers' labels don't always warn what's inside. Yet these misbegotten packages may hold a grisly inventory of potentially harmful cargoes--auto batteries, human tissue and blood, acids, corrosive substances, pesticides, gasoline or radioactive materials.

Delay-plagued John F. Kennedy International Airport shouldn't try to handle more than 80 takeoffs or landings per hour, substantially fewer than are now scheduled for some peak travel times, U.S. transportation officials say. JFK now has some hours when airlines plan for as many as 100 flights, a number that nearly everyone agrees is more than the congested hub can handle, even in ideal weather.

Back in earlier days as they climbed the political ladder together in Arkansas, Rodney Slater was among the most steady friends of Bill Clinton. As the young Clinton rebounded from his 1980 gubernatorial reelection loss, Slater's loyalty to the ousted governor earned him a seat on the Arkansas Highway Commission when Clinton returned to the Arkansas Statehouse in 1982.

The nation's railroads began rumbling back into service again Friday after Congress and President Bush acted overnight to end the two-day-old rail shutdown. Most rail operations were expected to return to normal by this afternoon. A spokesman for the Assn. of American Railroads said crews were clearing away a "backlog" of several thousand idled freight cars. Most passenger service was being restored Friday as well. One factor slowing the return to full service was a U.S.

In the pre-dawn of a fog-choked, icy February morning, six locomotives were pulling a 49-car train up a lonely mountain grade toward the spine of the Continental Divide. With the wind chill, it was 71 degrees below. And when the cab heaters failed in the second and third locomotives--and the lead engine quit altogether--the crew stopped to switch the other three locomotives to the front.

Two workers who provide wheelchair assistance to disabled travelers at Los Angeles International Airport filed a complaint Thursday with the U.S. Department of Transportation, alleging that their employer has failed to provide legally mandated training and properly maintain wheelchairs.

The FBI is investigating whether former Department of Transportation inspector general Mary Schiavo violated any laws when she checked a suspicious bag at a Columbus, Ohio, airport to test security measures. Schiavo checked a bag Friday as part of a story a local television station was doing on airport security. Schiavo said the bag contained several items, including a cellular phone wire.

Federal and state governments are doing a poor job of inspecting trucks at the U.S.-Mexico border, a U.S. Transportation Department audit found, and that could affect public safety next year, when international trucking expands under the North American Free Trade Agreement. An El Paso crossing had an average of 1,300 trucks daily, but was staffed by just one inspector, who looked at only 10 to 14 trucks a day.

This summer is officially turning out to be the worst for U.S. air travel as nearly a third of all domestic flights in June were late, and passenger complaints shot up 43%. The combination of severe storms, more planes in the air and an overloaded air traffic control system kept many travelers stuck at airports for hours, the Transportation Department said Monday. With June's poor showing, the U.S.

Two workers who provide wheelchair assistance to disabled travelers at Los Angeles International Airport filed a complaint Thursday with the U.S. Department of Transportation, alleging that their employer has failed to provide legally mandated training and properly maintain wheelchairs.

The U.S. Department of Transportation on Friday upheld a ruling that rents charged by the city airport agency are unreasonable and discriminatory to low-cost carriers at two terminals at Los Angeles International Airport. But the airport claimed at least a partial victory because the decision also stated that it could raise its rates to cover the increased cost of security and maintenance at its terminals.

Bay Area-based start-up airline Virgin America won final approval Friday to take to the skies in the United States. Federal regulators approved the company's revised plan to operate U.S.-based commercial flights after the company made numerous concessions, including replacing its chief executive, to allay concerns about the foreign ownership stake of Richard Branson's London-based Virgin Group. Virgin America, based in Burlingame, Calif.

The federal Department of Transportation agreed Friday to review complaints filed by airlines at Los Angeles International Airport saying that the city's airport agency unjustly raised terminal rents and fees earlier this year. The increases quadrupled those costs for some carriers in Terminals 1 and 3. Airlines in the Tom Bradley International Terminal also were ordered by the city's Airport Commission to pay higher fees.

U.S. airline delays worsened in January as congestion and poor weather strained the nation's air travel system. Carriers' on-time arrival rate was 73.1%, down from 78.8% in January 2006, the Transportation Department said Monday. Only 2005 had a lower January rate, at 71.4%, since the U.S. began keeping track of the data in 1999. The on-time arrival rate may be even lower for February because of air-travel disruptions caused by winter storms in the Northeast, the nation's busiest airspace.

The government confirmed Thursday that last year was the worst on record for air travel delays and the head of the nation's largest business group immediately demanded improvements. Department of Transportation statistics showed that airlines had an overall on-time record of 72.6% in 2000--the lowest since 1995, when the government began collecting such data. That means that about three of every 10 flights were delayed.

California transportation planners are looking to incoming Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta for help in getting people out of their cars and onto trains and buses to ease freeway congestion. As a senior member and chairman of the House Transportation Committee, the former Democratic congressman from San Jose was known as an advocate of mass transit. But, while mass transit is a cornerstone of Democratic Gov.

The Treasury Department auctioned $21 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 4.965%, down from 5.035% last week. An additional $17 billion in six-month bills was auctioned at a discount rate of 4.855%, down from 4.950% last week. The new discount rates understate the actual return to investors: 5.112% for three-month bills, with a $10,000 bill selling for $9,874.50, and 5.06% for a six-month bill selling for $9,754.55.

The government wants to change its car safety ratings by strengthening crash tests and promoting collision avoidance technology that automakers are adopting, Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters said Monday. The agency's proposal calls for improving frontal crash tests so that they would measure how a person's upper legs are affected in a collision. The new approach would also assess how side air bags protect a driver's head.