With help from Tanya Snyder and Brianna Gurciullo
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— The tolling industry has seen sharp blows to revenue, and it’s been forced to hasten a transition to cashless payments due to the coronavirus.
— A warning from TSA Administrator David Pekoske halted a Senate bill that would have expanded the agency’s Registered Traveler program.
— An airline industry group released new data showing how many planes are flying less than half-full.
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THE STATE OF TOLLING: The tolling industry’s experience with Covid-19 has been marked by a sharp fall in revenues, a rushed transition to cashless payments, and a sliver of hope that their model for funding infrastructure can can thrive after the pandemic. Pat Jones, who heads the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association, caught up with POLITICO ahead of the group’s virtual briefing on the issue today at noon.
The impact: It varies, Jones said, but many tolling agencies are seeing a 50 percent to 90 percent drop in revenue with fewer drivers on the road. Some have up to a thousand days of reserves to draw from, but others are have scaled back maintenance or capital projects, and still others are on the verge of layoffs.
Like transit agencies nationwide, tolling authorities including in Pennsylvania and Maryland have been forced to make what Jones called an “ad-hoc” transition to cashless payments to mitigate spreading the coronavirus.
The future might be bright: “There’s a possibility that we could see significantly more traffic on highways and especially toll facilities,” Jones said, as people start to return to work but avoid public transportation. With their “built in” revenue stream, toll facilities are well-positioned to support transportation infrastructure over the next several months, he said: “Right now everybody’s grabbing for emergency funding, but at some point, the spigot of emergency funding is going to stop.”
The ask to Congress: Staff on transportation appropriations and authorizing committees on the Hill have been responsive to IBTTA’s request for $9.245 billion in funding to offset toll revenue losses. “They’re continuing to follow up with us, ask us really good questions how the industry’s being affected and what this would be used for, which suggests to us that maybe we’re still in the mix,” Jones said.
SOME DRAMA IN COMMERCE: The Senate Commerce Committee yanked a bill from the markup agenda that would have expanded TSA’s Registered Traveler program after the agency’s head warned that the measure would hand over security screenings to private firms without allowing for government oversight.
Pekoske said in a letter to the committee that the bipartisan bill is a “bridge too far.” Committee leaders and the bill sponsors disagreed, saying it would “resolve ambiguity” in the program by clarifying roles, but they pulled the bill anyway, as our Tanya Snyder reports.
Moving along: Commerce also advanced two nominees for assistant secretary of transportation and three for Amtrak’s board of directors, and approved a bill that would give states more flexibility in spending FMCSA grant funding.
Speaking of one of those nominees… DOT refused to provide documents to Congress that could show Finch Fulton’s involvement in decisions related to the Gateway project, according to letters obtained by POLITICO.
Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) requested the documents in March, and specifically attachments to an email between DOT officials and Fulton, who’s been tapped to be an assistant secretary. At the time, Cantwell suggested the omissions “raise questions about your potential involvement in several controversial matters at DOT.” More from our Tanya.
MAILBAG: More than two dozen New York and New Jersey lawmakers wrote to congressional leaders on Wednesday asking them to match the request of the states’ Port Authority for $3 billion to recover from the pandemic. Beyond that cash injection, the Port Authority has also missed out on some funding because it’s a multistate entity, the lawmakers said.
THE STATS ON EMPTY PLANES: Seventy-three percent of flights in the past week were less than 50 percent full, Airlines for America said on Wednesday. “The vast majority flights are still very empty,” John Heimlich, A4A’s chief economist, told reporters, combating recent complaints from passengers about packed flights.
In an effort to get more customers flying again, A4A is launching a public awareness campaign called “Fly Healthy. Fly Smart” to showcase the steps airlines are taking to promote safety. Several carriers have announced new actions individually, including JetBlue, which said on Wednesday that it wouldn’t sell middle seats through July 6.
Sharon Pinkerton, A4A’s head of policy, also re-raised the specter of contact tracing, which spurred a heated dispute between airlines and the federal government at the beginning of the outbreak but has quieted since. A4A still thinks better contact tracing needs to happen, Pinkerton said.
Meanwhile, DOT recorded more than 5,000 complaints by aviation consumers in March, a 347 percent — you read that right — increase from the same month last year. More than 2,700 of the complaints from March were about refunds. Of the major U.S. carriers, United Airlines had the most complaints filed against it: a total of 811, including 640 about refunds.
CBP CHANGE A BLOW TO SMALL AIRPORTS: An unexpected change by Customs and Border Protection will hit smaller airports with higher fees at a time when their bottom lines are reeling, our Brianna Gurciullo reports. Starting in the last quarter of this fiscal year, CBP will shift its charges for international passenger and cargo processing from a flat rate to full recovery billing at more than 60 airports because payroll costs have outstripped revenue, the agency confirmed.
General aviation groups argue airports are facing increases between 29 and 54 percent. Stephanie Gupta of the American Association of Airport Executives said CBP’s move came with “horrible” timing and could force some airports to suspend customs services.
HELPING TECH: The pandemic is accelerating the use of autonomous delivery by drone and driverless vehicles so people can get essential goods without human contact. Google’s Wing has partnered with Walgreens and seen its deliveries — allowed under DOT’s pilot program for drones — grow five or six times over. Drone and AV companies “are doing really exciting things” during the pandemic, said Matthew Lipka, who leads federal public policy and regulatory efforts at the self-driving car company Nuro, during a webinar on Wednesday with the Consumer Technology Association. “But they’re at pilot scale.”
Regulation needs to catch up with technology to clarify federal and state responsibilities, bring safety standards into the autonomous era and allow vehicles to go faster than 25 mph to better serve rural areas. “We’ve made a compelling case for the value of this technology,” said Nick Devereux, who works on policy and government affairs at Wing. “What we need to do now is spur action from our regulators and others.”
FROM THE ‘REGULATORY OVERREACH’ FILES: House Transportation Committee Republican leaders are submitting comments to the Surface Transportation Board today to let the agency know they support the rail industry’s position that freight trains shouldn’t be regulated as polluters just because “trace amounts of coal/coke particles could drift into the water.”
IN TRANSIT LAND: “Adjusting” vs. “reducing” service is one of the ways the CDC’s guidance for transit agencies to return to service changed in the final version released this week, compared with an earlier draft deemed too prescriptive by the Trump administration, your host reports. Another: “steps” instead of “phases.”
— “Delta CEO: Some airline restructuring possible.” POLITICO Pro.
— “United’s new CEO eyes union cooperation to avoid staff cuts in pandemic crisis.” CNBC.
— “Volkswagen admits car ad racist, apologizes.” Reuters.
— “In Brazil Amazon, help a flight away for many virus patients.” Associated Press.
— “Senate Democrats press regulators to keep tabs on potential Uber-Grubhub merger.” POLITICO Pro.
DOT appropriations run out in 132 days. The FAA reauthorization expires in 1,228 days. Highway and transit policy is up for renewal in 132 days.
