BUSINESS
March 18, 2014 | By Shan Li and Abby Sewell
Chinese automaker Build Your Dreams is close to losing a $12-million contract to deliver a fleet of electric buses to Long Beach Transit, a deal the company hoped would jump-start its U.S. operations. Federal transit officials said that BYD violated some regulations that made it ineligible to bid in the first place. Both sides are in talks to determine how to best exit the contract ahead of what is expected to be a new round of bidding. It would mark a big setback for the Chinese company, which outbid four rivals last spring to build 10 electrically powered buses for Long Beach.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
February 26, 2014 | By Laura J. Nelson
Fare evasion along the Metro Orange Line has fallen significantly since law enforcement began a more aggressive campaign to check passengers' fares and issue citations and warnings, authorities said Tuesday. The ratio of passengers riding the San Fernando Valley busway for free fell to 7% and ticket misuse fell to 5% after more Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputies began checking fares and doing it more frequently, officials said at...
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
December 24, 2013 | By Laura J. Nelson
Transportation officials in Los Angeles County plan to offer a ballot measure next fall or in 2016 that would raise the county's sales tax by half a cent or extend the life of Measure R, the levy voters approved in 2008. The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority and multiple advocacy groups say more transportation money would help expand the region's fledgling rail network, improve complementary service on bus lines, and speed construction and repairs on rail lines and highways.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
October 19, 2013 | By Carlos Lozano
Bay Area transit officials are investigating a report that a BART commuter train struck two employees working along a section of track. The report said that the incident occurred between Walnut Creek and Pleasant Hill stations, according to BART's website. "We are working to gather more information and will update the public later this afternoon," according to the statement. Transit workers went on strike Friday after negotiations broke down over salaries and benefits. BART, the nation's fifth largest transit system, carries about 400,000 round-trip passengers each workday.
OPINION
October 16, 2013
Re "Transit, meet LAX. Maybe.," Editorial, Oct. 13 What is so difficult about connecting rail transit to the Los Angeles International Airport? Officials with Metro and Los Angeles World Airports should go to New York and experience JFK airport's AirTrain - and then copy it here. They should connect the terminals, parking lots, the 96th Street bus terminal and the Green Line Aviation stop with a rail system like New York's (or Newark's) and be done with it. They should make the ride into downtown less convoluted by building a connector between the Green Line and the Blue Line - which already intersect - and run airport express trains to LAX. How nice would that be?
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
August 9, 2013 | By Chris Megerian and Lee Romney
SACRAMENTO - Gov. Jerry Brown is seeking a judge's help to prevent a potentially crippling Bay Area transit strike as negotiators continue working to end an acrimonious, months-long contract dispute. If the Bay Area Rapid Transit system and its biggest unions do not reach a deal by Sunday morning, Brown will ask a San Francisco judge to order a 60-day "cooling-off period" in which workers would be prevented from walking off the job. A strike would "significantly disrupt public transportation services in the greater San Francisco Bay Area and endanger the public health, safety and welfare," according to a petition filed Friday by Brown and California Atty.