FEBRUARY 2013

Officially became the 2012-2013 chair of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) at the start of the APTA Annual Meeting last October in Seattle. Castillo, APTA’s first Latina chair, is a member of the New Jersey Transit (NJ Transit) board of directors, having been appointed by former Gov. Christine Todd Whitman in 1999, and reappointed by three different governors.

Although Congress just enacted a new transportation bill, the next one will soon need to be debated.

New Flyer has a contract with Chicago Transit Authority for two XE40 buses and received funding for a few Winnipeg Transit buses. Meanwhile, the ECO Smart is available in 30-, 35- and 42-foot versions.

Transit agencies across the country are discovering that passengers want to pay for fares the same way they pay for everything else — with their own bank cards or smartphones.