This past week, the Illinois Chamber of Commerce continued to push an aggressive media campaign urging Illinois Members of Congress to pass a long-term, fully-funded transportation bill. The Illinois Chamber of Commerce, joined by members of the Transportation for Illinois Coalition held a press conference on Tuesday in Springfield, generating media all over the State (see below for a full list of clips). T ...

Transportation Issues Daily released an advance list of Tiger III awards and Illinois did pretty darn good. Of the 16 leaked projects, 3 were in Illinois totalling approximately $45 million in federal dollars for important transportation projects. Before the conspiracy theorists start bloviating about Illinois being the President's homestate and that Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is showing favoritism ...

Citing a whole mess of issues eating up time on the legislative calendar for 2011, Congressional leaders announced that the House would not take legislative action on a much anticipated long-term transportation bill this year. Target adjournment it set for December 16th, so the clock was ticking even when House leaders announced their 5-year proposal just a couple of weeks ago. Few details have been release ...

Last week, the Senate EPW Committee unanimously passed a two-year transportation proposal which would maintain current funding levels and adjust for inflation. The legislation, MAP-21, has garnered strong, bi-partisan support with Republican Senators even offering praise to the Democratic Chairman of the EPW Committee, Senator Barbara Boxer. The bill faces a couple of hurdles; two additional Senate Committe ...

I'm convinced Congress and the White House need some consulting engineers to help them unravel the twisted, intersecting and congested political motivations that are contributing to the current debate on long-term transportation funding legisation. That is my cynical view based on conversations with Illinois Congressional offices over the past few weeks. On the one hand, it is a great sign that all of the p ...

What will the future of transit look like? Federal, state and local governments have reached a day of reckoning brought on by a mix of over-spent budgets and a sluggish economy, but people still need to get to work. In addition, policy-makers must balance concerns for the environment and quality of life for their constituents. Enter the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) and Pace Suburban Bus who ...

Today Illinois Governor Quinn announced the appointment of Ann Schneider to Secretary of the Illinois Department of Transportation. Schneider had been serving as Acting Secretary for a number of months since the retirement of Gary Hannig. Secretary Schneider assumes the role immediately and will certainly have an aggressive agenda ahead of her with challenging issues such as dwindling federal and state reve ...

Yesterday, at a press conference organized by T4 America, the Illinois Chamber of Commerce Infrastructure Council joined with other transportation advocates to highlight a bridge report that shows Illinois in dire need of transportation dollars. “Many of the bridges that our friends and neighbors cross in their daily commutes are unsafe or on the verge of becoming unsafe. Illinois is the transportation hub ...