Douglas John Bowen

DEFYING years of opposition from state and county officials, as well as resistance from some of its own members, Milwaukee Common Council approved the construction of a light rail in the city centre on February 10.

THE Federal Transit Administration has pledged about $US 996m through a New Start Engineering programme grant to support a 7.6km extension of Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's (MBTA) Green Line from Cambridge to Somerville and Medford.

BAY Area Rapid Transit (Bart) opened its $US 484m rail extension to Oakland International Airport on November 22, a 5.1km automated peoplemover (APM) link from Coliseum station which replaces a shuttle bus service.

SAN DIEGO Association of Governments Board of Directors (Sandag) has unanimously approved the final environmental impact report for the Mid-Coast Corridor Transit Project, which will extend the city's light rail network north from Old Town along the Interstate 5 corridor to La Jolla and University City.

THE newly-elected mayor of Surrey, the second-largest city in the Canadian province of British Columbia, has pledged to construct the city's first light rail line within four years.

THE governor of Massachusetts Mr Deval Patrick announced on October 22 that Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) will procure a fleet of up to 30 DMUs for commuter rail services on the 14.8km Fairmount Line from Boston South to Readville.

NEW York Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (MTA) proposed $US 32bn five-year capital investment programme, which identifies capital needs for MTA's railway, metro and bus networks from 2015-2019, has been vetoed by a five-member New York State Capital Program Review Board.

CALIFORNIAN commuter rail operator Caltrain has launched a public consultation on its future electric train fleet as part of plans to electrify the 82km San Francisco – San Jose line.

THE United States Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has given its approval for the construction of the 21km northern extension of the Minneapolis Blue Line from Target Field to Brooklyn Park, Minnesota.

SAN DIEGO Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) saw light rail ridership surge by 34% to reach 39.7 million passengers in the 2014 financial year, which ended on June 30, according to the operator's newly-published annual results.