A 60-year-old man attempting to fly from Baltimore to Tampa, Florida, this weekend is facing charges for attempting to board a plane with a loaded gun, the Transportation Security Administration says.

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TSA stops flier with loaded gun

Enjoy the government’s new airfare rule. It might not last. On Jan. 26, the Transportation Department began requiring airlines and ticket agents to quote fares that include all mandatory taxes and fees. Since 1988, they’d been allowed to advertise fares that didn’t include government-imposed taxes and fees. Read full article > >

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The Navigator: Bill aims to scuttle new airfare pricing rule

If it were a scene from one of Southwest Airlines ’ ubiquitous TV commercials that poke fun at the carrier’s competition, a stripe-shirted referee would have rushed in to cry “Foul!” Another airline was guilty of hiding costs in the fine print, the U.S. Department of Transportation said Wednesday. AirTran Airways last fall advertised online $59 one-way fares. There were a couple of asterisks but not enough elaboration. The ads said that additional taxes, fees and exclusions would apply, the DOT said, but there was no explanation of what those taxes or fees amounted to until a would-be passenger clicked on the ad and then scrolled to the bottom of the page, where the information appeared in fine print. Read full article > >

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DOT fines AirTran $60,000 for unclear advertising

On Jan. 24, the Transportation Department will enforce a rule requiring that any advertised price for air travel include all taxes and government fees.

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Airfares With Less Fine Print

PEABODY, Mass. — A woman who just flew back home from Las Vegas says an airport security officer confiscated her frosted cupcake because he thought the icing on it could be a security risk. Rebecca Hains said the Transportation Security Administration agent at McCarran International Airport took her cupcake Wednesday, telling her its frosting was enough like a gel to violate TSA restrictions on allowing liquids and gels onto flights to prevent them from being used as explosives. Read full article > >

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Mass. woman says TSA agent in Vegas confiscated frosted cupcake as possible security threat

Still searching for the money to pay for it , the House leadership has put the brakes on a long-term transportation spending plan, but Transportation Committee Chairman John L. Mica says he’s confident that the legislation will pass before the current funding extension expires March 31. State transportation planners say their efforts to move ahead with new highway and transit projects have been hamstrung by congressional failure to approve a new multi-year plan. The last big bill, passed in 2005, expired two years ago and planners have been living with the uncertainty under a series of stop-gap funding extensions. Read full article > >

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House delays long-term transportation plan over funding, timing

“Use extreme caution,” the District’s Department of Transportation is warning drivers as Occupy protesters in D.C. and Virginia plan to march on the Key Bridge in Georgetown Thursday afternoon. The march is part of the nationwide “ Get on the Bridge ” movement, which marks the two-month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street. Read full article > >

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Occupy D.C., NoVa protesters march on Key Bridge: What you need to know

WASHINGTON — The Department of Transportation said Monday it has fined a regional affiliate of American Airlines $900,000 for keeping hundreds of passengers cooped up for hours on planes in Chicago earlier this year, a clear warning to airlines on the eve of the holiday travel season that similar incidents won’t be tolerated. Read full article > >

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Gov’t fines American Eagle for keeping passengers cooped up in planes on Chicago tarmac

The Transportation Security Administration is testing a program that does not require travelers to remove shoes and belts nor to display laptops and liquids and gels.

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On the Road: T.S.A. Eases Security for Chosen Fliers – On the Road

The proliferation of intercity bus companies that pick up their passengers curbside has corresponded with an increase in bus accidents and fatalities, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a report released Monday. Curbside bus companies are more than five times more likely to be involved in fatal accidents than conventional intercity bus service companies, and newcomers to the business that operate 10 or fewer buses are more likely to be in accidents, the NTSB said. Read full article > >

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Curbside buses five times more likely to crash, NTSB report says

On the same July day that Donald Rumsfeld was patted down by airport security at Chicago’s O’Hare airport, I underwent an upper-body pat-down at Reagan National. I was posing spread-eagle in the full body scanner, in compliance with various mandates of the federal Transportation Security Administration, when something set off a female TSA agent, who began mumbling anxiously into her walkie-talkie. Read full article > >

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How my shirt flummoxed the TSA

Tolls will soon double on some Maryland highways as officials approved a statewide increase Thursday to confront deteriorating and congested roads and bridges, and a lack of money to pay for improvements. The Maryland Transportation Authority , grappling with what has become a national problem, said the toll hikes were necessary to offset declining revenue and to pay off debt. The authority board voted unanimously for the sweeping package of increases that will affect every place where tolls are collected in the state, from Interstate 95 to the Intercounty Connector, with the first increases taking effect Nov. 1. Read full article > >

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Tolls increase on Maryland roads, bridges and tunnels

Drivers for Metro’s shuttle service for disabled riders protested Monday over what they call overly long work shifts, saying the hours endanger their lives and customers. Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1764 , which represents about 800 drivers for MetroAccess, demonstrated outside MV Transportation’s office in Hyattsville. Wayne Baker, president of Local 1764, said drivers are being required to drive 13-hour shifts, causing fatigue. “It is a safety hazard,” Baker said of the long hours of driving. “They’re endangering the lives of the elderly and disabled and their own lives,” he said of the drivers. Read full article > >

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Drivers for disabled protest over work shifts

Streetcars should be bustling along H Street by the summer of 2013 as the corridor between Benning Road NE and Union Station rebounds from decades of decline and neglect, the District Department of Transportation said Monday. With the last phases of paving, curb and sidewalk reconstruction nearing completion, the District is moving forward with contracts that will put newly installed streetcar rails to use. Four companies have emerged in the bidding process to complete the remaining pieces necessary to begin trolley service, and DDOT is seeking a company to operate and maintain the system. Read full article > >

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D.C. wants streetcars to roll by mid-2013

Streetcars should be bustling along H Street by the summer of 2013 as the corridor between Benning Road NE and Union Station rebounds from decades of decline and neglect, the District Department of Transportation said Monday. With the last phases of paving, curb and sidewalk reconstruction nearing completion, the District is moving forward with contracts that will put newly installed streetcar rails to use. Four companies have emerged in the bidding process to complete the remaining pieces necessary to begin trolley service, and DDOT is seeking a company to operate and maintain the system. Read full article > >

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D.C. wants streetcars to roll by mid-2013