Kate Hinds

(photo by Port of San Diego via Flickr)

Coach America, which calls itself the nation's largest tour and charter bus operator and the second largest motorcoach service provider, has filed for Chapter 11 protection.

The president of Coach, George Maney, said in an emailed statement: "I want to emphasize that it is business as usual for Coach America throughout the Chapter 11 process." He said the company expects to continue normal operations as it restructures.

Fenway Partners, a private equity firm that also owns 1-800-CONTACTS, company, bought Coach America from Kohlberg Kravis Roberts in early 2007 in a deal valued at more than $400 million. Earlier this year credit ratings agency Moody's downgraded Coach's ratings and warned that the company might need to face restructuring. Although the company has a good business model, Moody's wrote, "it is in a cyclical industry currently under duress and continues to carry the onerous debt burden taken on in 2007 when the company was bought by its current equity sponsor."

Coach employees 6,000 people.

Top stories on TN:
New York’s Lost Subways--Complete with Map and Dusty Pics (link)
NYC Tries Out First Ever Weeknight Work-Related Line Shutdown (link)
Union, Veolia Reach Deal On Long Island Bus (link)
Invasion of the Body Scanners: They’re Spreading, But Are They Safe and Effective? (link)

New York City's abandoned City Hall subway station (Courtesy of Shane Perez)

Republican candidates on the presidential trail in Iowa aren't talking transportation... (Politico)

...but they do tend to support high-speed rail. (New York Times)

Massachusetts transit officials begin a process today that could lead to the first fare hikes on the T in five years, and possible service cuts as well. (AP via Boston Globe)

Construction on Miami's Metrorail extension to Miami International Airport is almost complete, and the line will open this spring. (Miami Herald)

Direct flights from Long Island’s MacArthur Airport to Washington, D.C. will begin by the end of March for the first time in a decade. (AP via New York Daily News)

The price of oil has doubled in Nigeria, after the government ended its oil subsidy. (Marketplace)

North Dakota's oil boom is bringing lots of money into state coffers -- as well as necessitating a lot of state spending. (Minnesota Public Radio)

New York Times editorial on public transit's budget squeeze: "More people are finally realizing that public transit is a better deal than driving. The question is how we turn that into a broader cultural shift."

A high-speed rail protest song is topping the charts in Britain. Sample lyric: 30 billion is the cost, far way beyond belief/And look across my valley, it's like a pound for every leaf. (Atlantic Cities)

An exhibition about Manhattan's 200-year-old street grid is on display at the Museum of the City of New York. (New York Times)

A New Zealand company is developing technology that notifies enforcement personnel is a non-handicapped driver parks in a handicapped spot. (Gizmag)

(photo by tracktwentynine via Flickr)

Starting on Monday, January 9, New York's MTA will be suspending all 4/5/6 subway service between Grand Central/42nd Street and Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, in both directions, for four consecutive weeknights, from 10pm to 5am.

New York has one of the few transit systems in the world that runs twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. That’s why what will happen next week on the Lexington Avenue subway line represents a sea change for the city.

This is the first time the city is closing down sections of an entire subway line for track and signal work. And it's not the last. The MTA is piloting something it's calling Fastrack, which it calls "a new way of working on the rails."

In 2012, sections of four subway lines — the 4/5/6, the B/D/E, and 1/2/3 and the A/C/E — will be entirely shut down. Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign said it's worth looking at.

"There's some good arguments," he said, "particularly about worker safety, not having trains do movements around repair sites, but it's a big change for the riding public and for some riders it could mean serious inconvenience."

Deirdre Parker, a spokesperson with the MTA, said the agency knows it will affect a lot of people. "The late-night weeknight ridership is approximately 250,000," she said, "so this will affect 10 - 15 percent of riders." But she said the shutdown makes conditions safer for employees — and it will save the MTA between $10 and $15 million a year.

The MTA added it's only doing this work on lines where there are a lot of alternatives, but that the shutdown will add about twenty minutes to riders' usual travel times. While it's not adding shuttle buses, Parker said for the upcoming Lexington Line shutdown, the MTA will operate the Times Square Shuttle all night, and it will have additional N/Q/R trains standing by.

To learn more about the upcoming Lexington Avenue line closure, see the MTA's brochure here (pdf).

New York has one of the few transit systems in the world that runs twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Which is why what will happen next week on the Lexington Avenue subway line represents a sea change for the city.

A bus drivers union has reached a tentative contract agreement with the new private operator of Long Island Bus, averting an interruption in Nassau County bus service.

On Jan 1, Long Island Bus will change its name to NICE, and get a new look.

A bus drivers union has reached a tentative contract agreement with the new private operator of Long Island Bus, averting an interruption in Nassau County bus service.

Veolia Transportation will take over the bus lines from New York's MTA on January 1st in a move meant to save the county money.

Patricia Bowden, president of Transport Workers Union Local 252, said she was thrilled that there would be no workforce reductions.

"I believe that it is a fair contract, it's not the same as the MTA, because that's a public [agency]," she said, "but for a private company I think it's very fair."

Veolia confirmed that there would be no layoffs. "Every TWU member who worked on Long Island Bus and applied and was qualified to join Veolia to work on NICE has been made a job offer," an email from the company said.

The contract must be ratified by the union membership before it takes effect. The union said a date for a ratification vote will be scheduled for January.

On January first, the service’s name will be changed to NICE, an acronym for Nassau Inter-County Express. Veolia said all current routes will continue to run, and will cover all of the same stops they normally do. Although the MTA will no longer be involved with operations, riders can still use their MetroCards.

Top stories on TN:
New York City traffic deaths hit historic low. (Link)
Feds shut down Chinatown bus company Double Happyness for safety violations. (Link)
Vermont's Route 107 finally reopened in Vermont, four months after being washed out by Tropical Storm Irene. (Link)
Year in Review, San Francisco: apps launch, rail remains, protests simmer. (Link)

San Francisco MUNI bus (photo by torbakhopper via Flickr)

For the first time since Harry Truman was president, the United States is exporting more gasoline and diesel (but not crude oil) than it imports. (NPR)

Senate Democrats expect to pass a long-delayed surface transportation bill soon after they return to Washington next month. (The Hill)

San Francisco's MUNI wants to eliminate some bus stops in order to speed up travel times. (Bay Citizen)

How much do you really know about the Keystone XL pipeline? Reality check time! (Marketplace)

Albuquerque quietly turned off its red light traffic cameras weeks ago. (KRQE)

Los Angeles' Red Line subway is inching towards later hours. (Los Angeles Times)

Biking and gender: where the women commute. (Atlantic Cities)

Top stories on TN:
Medellin gets a mega escalator (link)
To deal with slow walkers, whip out your bike bell (link)
2011 Year in Review, Houston (link)

New Yorkers on a crowded bus (photo courtesy of Brad Lander)

Ray LaHood on new FAA, trucking rules: "Ultimately, we've given pilots and truck drivers the time to rest. Now, they must exercise the personal responsibility to use that time wisely." (USA Today)

The reduction in the federal commuter tax benefit will look like a fare hike to transit users nationwide. (Star-Ledger, San Francisco Examiner)

Baltimore Sun editorial: "If anything, transit ridership ought to be given an advantage over driving — at least the kind that doesn't involve a car pool."

Disability activists hope the transformation of the city's taxi and livery system will also lead to similar change in transportation services already provided to disabled New Yorkers. (Crain's New York)

The school bus is going electric. (Wall Street Journal; subscription req.)

2011 has been very very good to Chrysler. (NPR)

Forget face detection, this Japanese car seat can tell who's sitting in it through butt recognition. (GizMag)

(photo courtesy of the Office of the Mayor, Medellin)

The 12,000 residents of one hilly Medellin neighborhood used to climb the equivalent of 28 stories to get from the city center to their homes. But an arduous 30-minute walk has been transformed into a five-minute ride, with the installation of an urban escalator system.*

"This escalator represents a celebration for all of us as a city," said Mayor Salazar Jaramillo on Monday, when he officially opened the escalators to the public in the Comuna 13 neighborhood. "This should be a symbol of city transformation and peace for Comuna 13."

The escalator is divided into six stages and cost about US$6.7 million to construct.

The mayor said innovations like the escalator are turning the Colombian city into a showcase for leading urban planning ideas, and added that officials from Rio de Janeiro had already contacted him about doing something similar in the hillside favelas there.

Press reports call Comuna 13 one of  Medellin's poorest and most violent neighborhoods. Which makes it ripe for transformation, according to city officials.

"In these slums, we have to make an important change," said Rafael Nanclares, Medellin's secretary of transportation and transit, speaking on the phone to Transportation Nation. "We have to make opportunities for them." Earlier this week, Nanclares tweeted a photo of a banner hung on the side of a building that read: "What pride! We live in the only neighborhood in the world with public escalators."

Nanclares said the escalators would make it easier for residents to get to school and work. A major goal of the escalator is to connect Comuna 13 with the economic center of the city--both literally and figuratively. "It's a way to give presence to people who don't have a presence," he said. The ambitious project is as much statement of support to an overlooked community as it is transportation improvement as he sees it.

Carlos Pardo, a consultant for the Institute of Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), pointed out that the city has been working to improve mobility for its poorest residents. "This escalator is part of a broader range of initiatives in Medellin," he said. The city has recently inaugurated a bike share program and a bus rapid transit system. Parts of the city also have a cable car-- but the necessary distance between stations made an escalator a better choice for Comuna 13.

More photos are below.

*An earlier edition of this post quoted the Medellin government as claiming this is the first urban escalator system as transit. As many readers point out, Hong Kong's has an urban escalator system, which opened in 1993.

(with reporting by Alex Goldmark)

(image courtesy of the Office of the Mayor, Medellin)

 (photo courtesy of the Office of the Mayor, Medellin)

(photo courtesy of the Office of the Mayor, Medellin)

Living in New York, where the sidewalks often seem divided between native peppy steppers and slow-moving tourists, we couldn't resist passing along this approach on how to keep sidewalk traffic moving. Whereas previous solutions have been more passive -- like painting lanes -- this one takes it up a notch.

Hat tip to Felix Salmon.

Top stories from TN:
Stranded A Train Passengers Sue New York MTA (Link)
YEAR IN REVIEW FLORIDA: 2011 Rides Rails Out of the Sunshine State (Link)

Image from New Jersey red light traffic camera

Unfinished subdivisions in Arizona have led urban planners to suggest "smart decline" strategies that sometimes even dismantle existing infrastructure. (NPR)

Hydrfracking moves to the suburbs. (Marketplace)

Friends don't let friends walk drunk, because "every mile walked drunk, turns out to be eight times more dangerous than the mile driven drunk."(Freakonomics)

California's plans to use Amtrak as a fallback for high-speed rail are coming under fire -- from Amtrak. (Los Angeles Times)

Megabus wants the feds to restrict--or break up--rival BoltBus. (Bloomberg via Crain's New York)

A red-light traffic camera manufacturer made a video of New Jersey intersection crashes and near-misses. (Star-Ledger; video)

Tweet of the day, from the Detroit News's David Shepardson: Ad in @BostonGlobe: Boston-area Saab dealer offering new Saab with $17,000 discount off MSRP

Twenty-two stranded straphangers are named as plaintiffs in the suit, which was to be filed on Tuesday in Queens County Supreme Court. They were left without heat, food or water when the train got stuck in several feet of snow in Queens, near JFK Airport, the day after Christmas in 2010.

Earlier this month, Thomas Prendergast, the president of New York City Transit, discussed the agency's preparations for the upcoming winter at a New York City Council hearing. "We forgot about that train," he said. "That’s inexcusable.”

The MTA wouldn't comment directly on the lawsuit. It issued a statement that read: "In the aftermath of last year’s blizzard, we have implemented a series of changes to improve our performance in future storms, including the creation of protocols to suspend service in harsh conditions and assigning a rider advocate to ensure the safety and comfort of our customers."

But attorney Ayman Aboushi, whose firm has taken on the case pro bono, said that falls short of what needs to happen.

"People are going to get stuck on a train at some point, and it's going to be longer than a few hours," he said. "It happens every year at least a few times. What are you going to do when that happens? Okay, you can shut it down, but what happens when you get blindsided?"

He added: "Agreeing to shut down the system when inclement weather is on the horizon is not a policy."

In August, the MTA took the unprecedented step of shutting down the city's transit system in preparation for Tropical Storm Irene.

Aboushi said the lawsuit aims to force the MTA to put better policies in place. A dollar amount for compensation, if any, would be up to the court.

You can see the lawsuit here (pdf).

A year after being trapped on an A train for over eight hours in a blizzard, a group of passengers is suing the New York MTA.

Top stories on TN:
New York’s Taxi Bill’s Long and Bumpy Ride (Link)
Maryland Moves Closer to Joining D.C. and Virginia in Capital Bikeshare Program (Link)
Hispanics Overrepresented in D.C. Area Pedestrian Deaths (Link)
DC Dangles Cash to Fight Congestion (Link)

Expo Station in Los Angeles (photo courtesy of BuildExpo.com)

The opening date for Los Angeles's long-awaited Expo Line has been postponed several times, and technical problems continue to delay the light rail system's operation. (Los Angeles Times)

The New York Times test-drives possible reasons for the FAA's ban on electronic devices during takeoff and landing. Verdict: "The only reason these rules exist from the F.A.A. is because of agency inertia and paranoia.” (Link)

What started out as commuter rail will end up as bus service on highway shoulders in the Kansas City area. (Kansas City Star)

Oil towns in North Dakota have spawned a robust job market, but there aren't enough homes for all the workers. (Marketplace)

More on the intercity bus boom. (Slate)

In Madrid -- and maybe one day in the Bronx -- parks bloom where freeways once ruled. (New York Times)

Boca Raton (FL) started a bicycle paramedic program. (AP via New York Daily News)

London's subway drivers walked out over a pay dispute Monday, causing trouble for thousands of shoppers heading out for the start of Christmas sales. (BBC)

Fare hikes and service cuts are looming in 2012 as Massachusetts' transit system tries to erase a deficit. (AP via WBUR)

A Boston T employee is in hot water after programming the LED display signs in one station with the lyrics to "Deck the Halls." (Boston Globe)

The head of the New York City Council's Transportation Committee is considering a range of legislation aimed at regulating bicyclists. (New York Posts)

TN's Todd Zwillich is hosting The Takeaway this morning.

Top stories on TN:
FAA Clears Santa’s Flight Path (Link)
DC Dangles Cash to Fight Congestion (Link)
Just How Good Are the TSA’s Body Scanners? (Link)
Tips for Infrequent Flyers: Leave the Olives at Home, and Junior’s Shoes On (Link)
Despite a Year of High-Profile Crashes, Inter City Bus Use Soars (Link)

(photo by Kate Hinds)

Commute by public transit? Your tax benefit is being reduced. Drive? You're getting a parking benefit increase. (Chicago Tribune)

Volkswagen's will limit employees' access to work email in an attempt to give them a break during non-work hours. (Marketplace)

An oil spill near the coast of Nigeria is likely the worst to hit those waters in a decade. (AP via NPR)

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's requirement that NYC's entire taxi and livery fleet eventually become wheelchair-accessible is a stinging rejection of the mayor's non-accessible Taxi of Tomorrow. (Crain's New York Business)

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said he won't back a proposal to prohibit drivers from talking on cellphones -- giving a boost to car makers and mobile-phone companies that stand to lose if regulators impose a ban. (Wall Street Journal; subscription)

President Barack Obama’s administration maintained an 11-hour limit on truck drivers’ hours today, scaling back a proposal to give them more rest... (Bloomberg)

...But some rules for drivers have changed. Learn more about the new regulations in Politico MT.

Can Amtrak afford to leave Penn Station for its new home in Moynihan Station? (Atlantic Cities)

Take a peek inside lower Manhattan's Fulton Transit Center, which is scheduled to open in 2014. (DNAInfo)

Top stories on TN:
Romney: We Have to Invest In Infrastructure: Video (Link)
Actual Debate Breaks Out At NY MTA Board Meeting (Link)
Maryland To Offer Preferential Funding For Smart Growth (Link)
FAA Unveils New Pilot Fatigue Rules (Link)
What it Takes to Keep San Francisco's BART Rolling (Link)
Your TN Transportation and Infrastructure Holiday Gift Guide: California Edition (Link)

Heatherwick Studio's new London bus design (photo by Iwan Baan)

WNYC's Kathleen Horan will explain the recent NYC taxi legislation on today's Brian Lehrer Show -- tune in at 10am. (Link)

Tenafly residents say 'not in our backyard' to NJ Transit plans to bring light rail to Bergen County. (NJ.com)

DC is piloting a program that incentivizes living near work. (WAMU)

Is DC's mayor slacking off on his commitment to building new bike lanes? (Washington Post)

Inductive charging for electric vehicles will get a trial run in Berlin. (GizMag)

Nissan gained some insight into the durability of its electric car, the Leaf, when about two dozen of them were destroyed in the tsunami that ravaged Japan in March -- their batteries were intact, and none caught fire.  (New York Times)

Check out a new design for London's famed double-decker bus. (Article in Dezeen; more pictures here.)

A new GPS device uses green routing to send drivers on the most fuel-efficient route. (FastCompany)

The rise in obesity in the U.S. means that the Coast Guard has had to reduce the passenger capacity of Washington State's ferry system, the nation's largest. (AP via New York Daily News)

New York's Bridge and Thruway authorities would be folded into the Department of Transportation if the state acts on preliminary suggestions from a government efficiency task force. (Albany Times Union)

(image courtesy of U.S. DOT)

Airline pilots will fly shorter shifts and get longer rest periods under new rules issued by the  Federal Aviation Administration Wednesday.

The rules update current pilot work schedule regulations -- which largely date back to the 1960s -- to reflect studies on how much time pilots need for rest and an understanding of how travel through time zones and the human body clock's response to light and darkness can affect performance.

"This new rule gives pilots enough time to get the rest they really need to safely get passengers to their destinations,” said FAA Acting Administrator Michael Huerta.

The new rules come nearly three years after a Colgan Air jet flown by two exhausted pilots crashed outside of Buffalo, killing 49 people -- a day U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood called "one of my worst days in this job."

Carriers have two years to adapt to the new rules. The FAA estimated the cost to the industry at $297 million over 10 years.

Cargo carriers -- who do much of their flying overnight -- are exempted from the new rules. The FAA said forcing cargo carriers to reduce the number of hours their pilots can fly would be too costly compared to the safety benefits. The FAA is encouraging cargo carriers to opt into the new rule voluntarily

Congressman John Mica, who heads the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, issued a statement tepidly praising the new rules, but said: "Pilots must take personal responsibility for coming to work rested and fit for duty.  The government cannot put a chocolate on every one of their pillows and tuck them in at night.”

You can read more about the new rules on the FAA's website here.

(Additional reporting from AP)

New York is far from the only place where transportation can be turned into gift-giving gold. Looking for a locally harvested MUNI transfer button? A belt made out of bicycle tires? A Decolonized Area Rapid Transit t-shirt? Look no further than the Bay Area.

TN contributor Julie Caine of KALW saw these bangles at Oaklandish, a shop in Oakland.

(photo by Julie Caine/KALW)

It's where you can also purchase t-shirts inspired by the BART map....

(photo by Julie Caine/KALW)

...and note cards of the Bay Bridge:

Go ahead and cross that bridge into San Francisco, where a Sunset District crafter sells pro-transit pins:

Top stories on TN:
Your TN Transportation and Infrastructure Holiday Gift Guide: New York Edition (link)
Deal Reached on Controversial NYC Taxi Plan (link)
Newt Gingrich: Rail Visionary, Lover of Oil (link)
Rating Agency Says Loss of Tax Revenue Could Hurt NY MTA (link)
Cashless Tolling In NYC – Not Yet, But Moving Toward It (link)

The U.S. highway system, mapped as a transit route (image courtesy of Cameron Booth)

The Federal Aviation Administration will release new rules for addressing pilot fatigue today. (The Hill)

House Republicans are calling for a GAO audit into California's high-speed rail program. (McClatchy via Miami Herald)

Congress moves toward a tougher stance on pipeline safety, but is it enough? (ProPublica)

Now that Troy has rejected federal funds for a regional transit center, other Michigan cities are scrambling to claim it. (Detroit Free Press)

Battered by criticism and low sales, Honda will redesign its Civic -- just eight months after releasing the last version. (Changing Gears)

Reimagining highway routes as a transit map. (Cambooth.net)

The nostalgia train brought out New Yorkers' inner flappers/Southern gentlemen/vaudeville hosts. (Wall Street Journal)

Cap'nTransit asks: will Cornell's Applied Sciences campus on New York's Roosevelt Island be car-free?

TSA agents in Los Angeles are trying to get on passengers' good sides by singing holiday carols. (Marketplace; video below)

Last year it looked like bikes had replaced owls as the go-to item at New York's craft fairs. But this year transportation is coming into its own. And the last-minute holiday shopper looking for gifts with an infrastructure bent will be amply rewarded.

The last New York City subway token was sold in 2003. But they live on at the Brooklyn Flea, where they've been re-engineered to serve as pendants.

NYC subway token necklaces by City Owl, Inc. (photo by Kate Hinds)

Seen at the Columbus Avenue GreenFlea, on Manhattan's Upper West Side: jewelry made from traffic lights.

(photo by Kate Hinds)

And then downtown at the Bust Craftacular, someone was selling jewelry and key chains made out of repurposed license plates:

(photo by Kate Hinds)

But the Craftacular also had its highbrow offerings, like sterling silver bike tie tacks.

(photo by Kate Hinds)

Thirsty? The newly opened REI in SoHo is catering to the locals with a subway water bottle.

(photo by Kate Hinds)

But the Infrastructure Gift Purveyor of the Year Award goes to dishware vendor Fishs Eddy (admittedly not a craft fair) where one can purchase a ceramic parking ticket tray:

(photo by Kate Hinds)

And you can toast 2012 with glassware emblazoned with the Lincoln Tunnel mosaic that marks the New York/New Jersey state line:

(photo by Kate Hinds)

And, of course, eat your cereal out of bowls with iconic city bridges:

A bowl from the Bridge & Tunnel collection (photo by Kate Hinds)

But you might still want to get back to basics and drink your morning caffeine out of a bike mug.

Taliah Lempert-designed bicycle mug (photo by Kate Hinds)

But don't hoist the mug while wearing your Kate Spade taxi mittens (spotted at the Flatiron District Kate Spade store.)

Kate Spade window display (photo by Kate Hinds)