Transportation

The Senate approved a $12.6-billion spending bill for transportation programs Wednesday that sets aside money for more air safety personnel and saves Amtrak from drastic cuts sought by the House. The bill to fund programs in fiscal 1997 provides for 250 additional air traffic controller positions and 130 aviation hazardous materials inspectors.

I was struck by a phrase in "Sluggish Pace Will Bring Social Conflict" (Jan. 1) referring to France's "money-losing" railway lines, and by its similarity to numerous references in the media to partially subsidized public transport systems that try to characterize such systems as monstrous leeches on society. Let me ask you this: How much money do the streets and highways bring in, then? According to figures I have seen, fuel taxes, registration fees and even tolls amount to such a minuscule proportion of the cost of building, maintaining and policing roadways that it becomes evident that the private automobile is the most heavily tax-subsidized form of transportation on Earth, as well as the most destructive to the community, the environment and, quite often, to physical life itself.

A bill that would prohibit oil companies from using tankers to transport oil in California's coastal waters is headed to the state Senate for consideration now that the Assembly has approved the measure by a 43-26 vote. The bill by Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) would require companies to move oil by pipeline. The Coastal Commission has said moving oil through pipelines is safer for the environment.

If your path to enlightenment leads through London, there's transportation on a higher celestial plane than one of the city's traditional black taxi cabs. These days the nirvana of car services is Karma Kars, a five-car fleet of classic Ambassador cars imported from India and individually decorated--or "karma-ized"--by Heather Allan, wife of proprietor Tobias Moss.

In a move to tighten the nation's security, federal officials announced the launch Wednesday of a worker identification program that would eventually require background checks and identification cards for 6 million truck drivers, dock workers and cargo handlers at U.S. ports, airports and railways.

Some Mexico City subway workers staged a wildcat strike against what they called unsafe conditions, shutting down two of the metro system's 11 lines and forcing about 500,000 people to seek other transportation. City authorities offered free buses at some subway stations, but crowds formed at others.

Masao Kurenuma and his staff may be setting a record for Olympic endurance, even in a country that prides itself on grinning and bearing up under pressure. Kurenuma is the bus man of Nagano, the person responsible for dispatching about 950 buses for athletes, media and spectators to the far-flung venues and remote mountaintops of the Nagano Winter Olympics.

Officials from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Los Angeles Unified School District have announced an ambitious plan to open transportation academies at three schools, including Wilson and Locke high schools. With money from the federal Department of Education and the Federal Transit Administration, the schools will open at Wilson, Locke and North Hollywood high schools after teachers and staff devise the curriculum this summer.

The new administration of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed canceling state support for $5.4 billion worth of highway and transit projects and shifting $1 billion worth of transportation money to the general fund, imperiling hundreds of projects meant to relieve congestion and improve air quality. The governor's plan, which had was unveiled publicly Thursday at a meeting of the California Transportation Commission, would kill the ambitious anti-congestion program set up by former Gov.