Martin DiCaro

For the second time since all District taxicabs were required to accept credit card and smartphone payments beginning this month, another company tapped by D.C. to  process those transactions is having major problems.

A proposed 16-mile, years-in-the-making light rail line -- like many other transit projects -- is subject to the funding priorities of Congress. And these days, that's not so certain.

WAMU - Washington —

The 495 Express Lanes in Northern Virginia—14 miles of EZ Pass-only toll lanes where HOV-3 vehicles ride free—are still struggling to attract drivers nearly one year after opening. Traffic volume on the new highway is below expectations, according to information reported to the Australian Securities Exchange.

MetroAccess may be on the verge of its first strike, potentially stranding the hundreds of disabled residents who rely on the service for their daily appointments.

WAMU - Washington —

Two weeks after the start of universal credit card acceptance in Washington, D.C. cabs, the transition from cash-only to modern technology has been bumpy, with more than 5,600 of the District’s roughly 6,500 cabs having installed systems that accept payments from both credit cards and smartphone apps.

Crime is up 9.8 percent on Metro rail and bus through the first eight months of this year, compared to the same period in 2012. The data comes as part of a crime report being presented to the transit authority's board Thursday morning.

WAMU - Washington —

Building a ten-mile parkway in Northern Virginia won't turn Dulles International Airport into the premier air cargo hub on the East Coast, according to a study by the George Mason University Center for Regional Analysis.

WAMU - Washington —

The H Street/Benning Road corridor is undergoing a permanent—and highly anticipated—transformation.

WAMU - Washington —

A contractor was killed and two transit authority employees were injured in a work accident shortly after midnight Sunday in Washington, D.C.’s subway system.

WAMU - Washington —

The District Department of Transportation is launching a one-year study of a nine-mile streetcar line between Buzzard Point in Southwest D.C. and Takoma in Northwest. It's a key segment of a planned 22-mile streetcar system supposed to integrate wiith Metro buses and the D.C. Circulator.

WAMU - Washington —

In a western suburb of the nation's capital, reinforced concrete pillars are rising high above Virginia's traffic-clogged highways. They represent five years of nearly completed construction work on one of the nation's largest transit projects.

"Extend the deadline! Extend the deadline!" they chanted.

ROCKVILLE, Md. —

The official kickoff to Montgomery County's BRT discussion was punctuated by worry and hope -- and was underscored by the sense that the densely populated county is at the transportation crossroads.

When D.C.'s Metro claimed this month that more of its 588 escalators are working than at any point in nearly five years, many rail riders rolled their eyes in disbelief. But then a Ph.D. candidate in mathematics got involved.

The first phase of the Silver Line, already anticipated in D.C.'s newest Metro Map, will be completed within two months. But so far there's no word on how long testing will take -- or when passenger service will begin operating.

WAMU - Washington —

As a deadline approaches for D.C. taxi cabs to accept credit cards, the city's top regulator says most drivers will be in compliance. But despite threats of impounded vehicles, up to 2,000 cabs won't be ready.

Metro is losing rail ridership, and fare revenues are falling short of projections, but transportation planners and policy experts say the short-term losses don't signal significant trouble -- especially since the transit agency is central to the region’s economic growth in the coming decades.

Metro is losing riders and revenue for the transit agency is falling short of projections, according to new numbers released by the transit agency.

One week after D.C. regulators effectively banned the new sedan-for-hire service UberX from operating in Washington, a District council member who has refereed the many disputes between the D.C. Taxicab Commission and the tech startup Uber said she would intervene again.

WAMU - Washington —

In Virginia, a major transportation project goes nowhere unless it receives the support of the Commonwealth Transportation Board. This influential, 17-member panel picks the winners from the state’s long wish list of road improvement projects. Yet, few of the members are known to the general public, and most do not have transportation or urban planning backgrounds. Most of these key transportation decision makers come from the real estate or banking sectors.