A revised international investment proposal released today by the U.S. Department of Transportation would strengthen requirements initially proposed last November concerning U.S. citizens’ control of all safety, security and national defense obligations of domestic airlines while allowing international investors to make decisions on commercial matters involving U.S. airline management.

The supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking issued by the Department reflects comments provided on the November, 2005 proposal from consumers, airlines, aviation personnel and other interested groups. That proposal would make it easier for U.S. airlines to raise money, restructure their businesses and form strategic partnerships and alliances by allowing international investors more say in some aspects of airline operations such as scheduling and marketing.

The supplemental proposal issued today would make clear that U.S. citizens who are members of a domestic airline’s board or the voting shareholders, must retain the authority to revoke decision-making authority that international investors may acquire. For example, domestic board members might decide to revoke international investors’ decision-making authority over scheduling and fleet composition if they felt that those decisions were not in their airlines’ best interests. The new provision would make clear that U.S. citizens remain in “actual control” of the airline, as required by statute.

In addition, the revised proposal would strengthen the original proposal’s requirement that U.S. citizens have full control over all policies and implementation relating to safety, security and national defense airlift commitments. The new proposal would specifically prevent international investors from having the ability to hire, fire or control the budgets of senior airline managers with direct responsibility for safety, security and national defense airlift commitments.

As with the original version, the revised proposal would only apply to international investors from countries that have Open-Skies aviation agreements with the United States and allow similar investments by American citizens in their domestic airlines.

Here’s a partial list of US domestic airliners targeted, directly or not, by this proposal:

• Alaska Air
• Aloha Air
• America West Airlines
• American Airlines
• Continental Airlines
• Delta Air Lines
• Hawaiian Airlines
• Northwest Airlines
• Pacific Coastal Airlines
• Southwest Airlines
• United Airlines
• US Airways
• WestJet Airlines
• World Airways

The Department is seeking additional comment for another sixty days to allow for all interested groups to comment on the revised proposal.

Tags: airlines, investments, us, dot, proposal, safety, security, national defense, citizens

Freight transportation is a key concern of the US Department of Transportation and nearly every operating administration listed in DOT Agencies.

The following major web pages at DOT are entirely dedicated to freight transportation on the American territory:

• Framework for a National Freight Policy
• National Freight Statistics and Maps
• Freight Information by State
• National Freight Data Sources

• Freight at the Bureau of Transportation Statistics
• Freight at the National Transportation Library
• Freight Analysis, Professional Development, Intermodal Technology, and SAFETEA-LU Freight Programs at the Federal Highway Administration
• Freight Planning at the Federal Highway Administration
• Freight at the Federal Railroad Administration

• The Transportation of Hazardous Materials
• Pipeline Safety

If you feel these links don’t answer all your freight-related questions, you can write to the US Department of Transportation using this freight-specific e-mail address: freight@dot.gov.

Tags: freight, transportation, us, dot, safety, hazmat, highways, railroads, american, agencies

The US transportation system is essential to the growth of the Nation. As such, it’s essential that the latest traffic and road closure information be made available to all companies and individuals who need to take important routing decisions, often in real-time.

The following link collection is inspired by the one made available by the US Federal Highway Administration and are intended to be a quick reference you can easily access.

Individual US States information:

Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Puerto Rico Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington State Washington, D.C. West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming

National information links related to various themes.

Construction related:

• Rand McNally Construction Information for North America

Weather / road conditions related:

• AccuWeather Travel Weather
• AccuWeather Weather Headlines
• Intellicast Travel Weather, including DriveCast
• National Weather Service
• National Weather Service Interactive Weather Information Network
• RoadWeather.com Road Surface Conditions and Travel Weather
• Safe Travel USA – Weather and Road Conditions for the Upper Midwest
• Travel Cities Weather
• USA Today Weather Forecasts Along Interstate Highways
• Weather Channel Travel Weather

Traffic conditions information:

• AccuTraffic – Traffic information for States
• Beat the Traffic Information for various US cities
• Iteris Real-Time Traffic Information, maps and times – for various US cities
• Metrocommute Traffic Information
• MSN Traffic Reports
• Road Summit Travel information for various US locations
• Road Watch America
• Search Beat Traffic and Weather Web Links
• SmarTraveler – Traffic information for various major US cities
• Smart-Traveler Information for various US cities
• Traffic.com – Traffic information for US cities
• TrafficOnline – Personalized, route-specific, real time traffic information
• Travel Advisory News Network (TANN) – Traffic conditions for various cities
• TravelForecast.com – United States road and traffic conditions
• Yahoo! Traffic Views – Traffic conditions for various cities

Regional information links:

• I-95 Corridor Coalition Traveler Information
• I-95 Travelers Alert (from Starsystems)
• Midwest Road Conditions from the National Weather Service (CO, IL, IN, IA, KS, MN, MO, NE, ND, SD, WI, WY)

State Departments of Transportation:

• All State DOTs

More information, including the 511 service, is made available on this page at the Federal Highway Administration, which is a branch of the US Department of Transportation.

Tags: traffic, us, dot, safety, transportation, federal highway, state dot, metrocommute, roads