Transportation News from Road Guy Rob

Washington’s ferry engineers all call in sick at once. Red diesel’s tax break turns out to be an IOU. TSA’s Gateside perk dies in Denver after a week. And the Army’s Potomac crash report finds plenty of failures but no one to blame.

Congress kicks the can on the next 5-year highway bill while transit takes an 80% cut. Boston discovers its million-dollar turnstiles aren’t waterproof. Nashville renames its airport for Dolly Parton. And a Colorado airport hires G.O.A.T. employees (who are literal goats).

Boulder votes to keep its airport instead of building housing on it. The Gordie Howe Bridge finally opens to bikes and pedestrians. LAX's people mover is 99.6% done and still can't carry a single passenger. TSA's private screening experiment quietly falls apart. And Congress is 30 days from letting the highway trust fund freeze entirely.

The Gordie Howe Bridge finally opens, but Americans were kicked out of the party. The White House sends Congress a wish list: kill the transit account and tear out some bike lanes. And Indiana adds up the damage from its gas tax holiday.

A finished, ribbon-ready bridge between Detroit and Windsor is staying closed indefinitely, and Canada wants to know why. Sidewalk-mapping robots in Hollister get attacked (one doused in beer). And Washington state blows up a beloved roadside boulder. But you might be able to get one of the pieces.Plus the World Cup's stress test on transit nationwide, jet fuel prices up 80% since the Iran war, and South Carolina OKs new 60-year private toll lane deals.

California floats a 140mph bus down I-5 (not a joke). Spirit's repossessed planes get flown to the Arizona desert. And states scramble to pause gas taxes after the prices jump carries into a third month. Plus the Penn Station deal, the Key Bridge settlement, and the FAA's Reagan National admission.

O'Hare is cutting 300 flights a day this summer after some stern words from the FAA. A federal judge saved a D.C. bike lane from getting paved over. Road deaths hit their lowest rate in a decade. How spiking oil prices will affect shipping and traffic. Automakers want to kill the federal gas tax. California high-speed rail balloons to $125 billion. Maryland fires the Key Bridge contractor. New Jersey Transit wants $150 for a World Cup ride. And Amtrak is suing the MTA over Penn Station, again.

Madison Square Garden might have to move so Penn Station can make a comeback. Seattle just put a railroad on a floating bridge. Indiana wants truckers to pay $84 to cross the state. DART cuts a deal to survive, Chicago sues the feds, LA picks a route to Hollywood, and pedestrian deaths are finally turning around.

Oregon is still wrestling with a transportation funding crisis. Lawmakers now want to move the tax referendum from November to May. DART in Dallas dodges a bullet. BART in San Francisco may not be so lucky. And are Waymo taxis actually safer?

Crews had a lot of work to dig out the South from the historic winter storm at the end of January. On this episode we look at FAA spending and staffing, political fighting halting a critical New York-New Jersey train tunnel project, and the quiet death of a Minnesota commuter rail line.Go more in-depth with the longer FAST TRACK podcast, exclusively for contributors at patreon.com/RoadGuyRob