New FTA Administrator: The White House nominated Steve Aesch to run the Federal Transit Administration on Nov. 10. Mass Transit magazine has a profile of Aesch.

LAX People Mover Debt Crisis: The Los Angeles Times reports that Fitch ratings has significantly downgraded the debt of the behind-schedule Skylink people mover at Los Angeles International Airport, ahead of a December 8 deadline that Skylink is likely to miss, putting the project in technical debt default and opening up the possibility of a lot of lawsuits.

Intermodal – An All-Time High: The Association of American Railroads reports that October 2026 was a great month for U.S. rail traffic, particularly the intermodal containers that can be transferred by crane back and forth from ship to truck to train and back and forth (thank you Malcom McLean), which reached an all-time high of around 1.2 million containers moved. Year-to-date, intermodal traffic was up 4.7 percent over 2025 equivalent, while bulk carload traffic was only up 2.7 percent (and that after a significant drop in coal carloads).

AVs in the DC: A bill authorizing the operation of autonomous vehicles in the District of Columbia narrowly failed in committee, including a ‘no’ vote from the incoming mayor, Janeese Lewis George. Lewis George and the council members have indicated that they are open to passage of a bill in the future. In the week before the vote, the bill was updated to include a cap of 800 autonomous vehicles and requirements to enable unionization of rideshare drivers. DC channel 5 news has the story.

Jonesing for More: Transport Topics has the scoop on another 90-day extension of the Trump Administration’s’ waiver of the Jones Act for ships carrying petroleum and petroleum products, liquiefied natural gas, and fertilizer.