A profile of Jill Hough, SURTC director, is featured in the February 8 issue of the American Public Transportation Association’s newsletter, Passenger Transport, and on its website. Click on the following links to read the profile and watch a video of Jill discussing SURTC.

APTA Member Profile of Jill Hough

Video of Jill Hough discussing SURTC

New resources have been added to the SURTC website to assist transit agencies in developing policies and procedures. SURTC collected a number of sample policies, procedures, and report forms from different organizations and posted them online so they can be viewed, downloaded, and adopted by transit agencies.

Included are good examples of advisory board by-laws, driver handbooks, no-show policies, riders’ guides, vehicle maintenance programs, accident report forms, guidelines on local planning and coordination,  and many others. As with all samples, these should be reviewed by your board of directors and legal counsel if you wish to adopt them.

These Transit Policy Examples are found in the Other Resources section of the SURTC website.

Brenda Schweitzer, Executive Director of Brookings Area Transit Authority in Brookings, SD, recently spent several days visiting transit systems around the world with a group of transit professionals from the United States. The trip was part of the Transit Cooperative Research Program’s (TCRP’s) International Transit Studies Program (ITSP).

Schweitzer was nominated and selected to participate in the fall 2010 Transportation Mission Study, “Public Transportation Systems as the Foundation for Economic Growth.” The trip took her and her group to Istanbul, Turkey; Cairo, Egypt; and Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa. They toured the transit operations in these cities and studied how local investments are linked to economic growth.

The participants will now compile their notes in preparation of their mission report. Of her experience, Brenda wrote:

“Throughout the world, transportation is a major part of society, bringing social, economic and environmental values to light. I look forward to bringing this gained knowledge to my system and the rural areas we serve. We can appreciate the sparse populations we work with, as well as the cohesive working relationships we have with the federal, state and local funding sources.”

To learn more about the transit systems in these cities and Brenda’s experiences, read the following article she wrote about her trip:

Brenda Schweitzer’s International Trip

President Joseph Chapman spoke about the importance of transit in the growth and success of North Dakota State University during his keynote speech on September 21 at the 2009 Dakota Transit Association Fall Conference in Fargo.

Metro Area Transit is key a partner to NDSU which has seen its student body and downtown campus grow tremendously in the past decade.  During the first eight days of service this fall, transit routes serving NDSU provided nearly 40,000 new trips.

Watch President Chapman’ comments at Chapman DTA Keynote 2009 Pt. 1 and Chapman DTA Keynote 2009 Pt. 2.

As SURTC strives to improve its outreach activities and provide a greater variety of valuable and current information in an accessible format, we announce the launching of our new blog. The intent of the blog is to facilitate the dissemination of information and dialogue on small urban and rural transit topics.

The blog will keep readers up-to-date on the training and research being conducted by SURTC staff.  In addition, the blog endeavors to be a valuable resource for news and information pertaining to the world of small urban and rural transit.  Expect to see posts about upcoming training, SURTC events, completed or ongoing research projects, industry news of significant events that impact small urban and rural transit, and anything else we would like to share with you.