Featuring Kathryn A. Wolfe

SHUTDOWN PRIMER: Barring a last-minute burst of bipartisanship, the federal government will shut down Tuesday, the start of the new fiscal year. Of 55,468 positions at the Transportation Department, 18,481 will face furloughs, or about one in three workers. A whopping 25,458 workers are protected from furloughs for “life/safety” reasons and another 8,417 are protected because their jobs aren’t funded by normal appropriations. DOT updated its contingency plan last week, although it’s largely unchanged from 2011, the last time time the government faced a threatened shutdown: http://1.usa.gov/1fTFkl4 Here’s a quick breakdown.

--AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS: Stay on the job. The safety reasons here are obvious. This also applies to inspectors and on-call accident investigators. But another 15,514 FAA employees will face furloughs, including those working on NextGen, those involved in aviation rulemaking and employees who perform security checks at facilities.

--GAS TAX-FUNDED POSITIONS: Does the money for your job come from the federal fuel tax? Then you’re not being furloughed. Not a single Federal Highway Administration or Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration employee is facing a furlough. At the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, another 259 employees are protected. NHTSA employees who work on rulemaking, new car safety assessments and potential recalls would be furloughed.

--TRANSIT AND RAIL EMPLOYEES: Nearly every Federal Transit Administration employee faces a furlough, with those working on Hurricane Sandy recovery serving as a notable exception. At the Federal Railroad Administration, about half of employees work on safety issues and are protected.

--RESEARCHERS: Employees at DOT’s two fee-supported research centers, the Transportation Safety Institute in Oklahoma City and the Volpe Institute in Cambridge, Mass., will dodge furloughs. Twenty-five other RITA employees will not be as lucky.

--SURFACE TRANSPORTATION BOARD: If you work at STB and didn’t have to face a Senate confirmation hearing, you’re getting a furlough. Of the board’s 143 employees, only the three board members are exempt.

--MARITIME: At the Maritime Administration, 451 of 830 employees will be furloughed. Classes will stop at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. If a shutdown lasts for more than a week, midshipmen will be sent home.

--INSPECTOR GENERAL: Of the office’s 399 employees, only five are exempt from furloughs. Those employees all work for the Hotline and Crisis Management Center.

--OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY: Of the 730 employees who work under Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, 382 will face furloughs, including the entirety of the civil rights division and most public and governmental affairs employees. Fifteen employees in the secretary’s office will stay on the job for safety reasons and another 286 have jobs funded outside regular appropriations.

HOW DID WE GET HERE? The great David Rogers has a must-read piece on how the shutdown has its roots in an unrealistic budget plan adopted by the House GOP in the spring: http://politi.co/1979Gj5 Ginger Gibson and Seung Min Kim have more on how Republicans are desperately trying to fend off blame for the first government shutdown since 1996: http://politi.co/1bjAvid And Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan write that the House GOP is finally “touching the stove” after three years of backing away from shutdowns, fiscal cliffs and debt defaults: http://politi.co/1fUz9NL And Ben White looks at how a shutdown would harm the economy: http://politi.co/19igV1D

MOODY MONDAY. Thanks for reading POLITICO’s Morning Transportation, your daily tipsheet on trains, planes, automobiles and ports. I’m Kevin Robillard, on my last day filling in for Adam Snider, who may or may not have spent the past week trying out as punter for all 32 NFL teams. Even though I won’t be your friendly MT host this week, don’t forget to reach out at [email protected] and @ PoliticoKevin.

“I swear I’ll see you one day, darling/On the road to insolvency…” (h/t Bob King) http://bit.ly/1hcLHhe

AMTRAK TALKS DOWN TO THE WIRE: Tuesday isn’t just the deadline for funding the government. It’s also the deadline for 19 states to come to agreements with Amtrak on how to fund short-distance routes. While Amtrak has long expected negotiations with Indiana to be a difficult, as of Thursday, they hadn’t reached agreements with transit-friendly states like Massachusetts, Illinois and New York. But Amtrak fans shouldn’t freak just yet. The drop-dead date really isn’t until the middle of the month. My story has more: http://politico.pro/14W01s5

--The threatened routes include four of Amtrak’s most popular lines outside the Northeast Corridor. The New York City-Albany-Niagara Falls line, the Empire Service, was one of only five of those routes to serve more than 1 million riders in fiscal 2012. Three other threatened routes served more than 500,000 passengers.

--In one positive sign, New York has agreed to pay $800,000 to keep the Ethan Allen Line running. The line connects New York City and Rutland, Vt. Burlington Free Press: http://bfpne.ws/16WJfqs

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MAJORITY OF CALIFORNIANS WANT BULLET TRAIN STOPPED: A Los Angeles Times poll released Saturday had 52 percent of Golden State residents seeking to stop construction on the $68 billion project aimed at connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco. Only 43 percent said the project should go forward. While voters approved the train back in 2008, 70 percent now want the project back on the ballot. One former rail authority board member said the agency will probably need another bond measure to complete the project, making public support crucial. http://lat.ms/14RvJqy

--Voters weren’t fond of Elon Musk’s proposed alternative, either. Sixty-five percent said Hyperloop was unrealistic.

TRAVEL TECH HIRES SHUR: The trade organization, which represents online travel companies like Orbitz, Expedia and Priceline, has hired Steve Shur as its new president, according to a release shared with POLITICO.

FREIGHT VS. FCC ON ANTENNAS: The nation’s freight railroads and the FCC are at odds again about positive train control, with the railroads accusing the agency of slowing deployment of the safety technology. The Association of American Railroads says about 20,000 applications to install antennas need to be processed for the railroads to meet the 2015 deadline for installing PTC, but the FCC can handle only 2,000 applications a year. The FCC issued a “public submission” on Friday that would address infrastructure siting broadly, but AAR says the proposal won’t do anything to help PTC antennas. Here’s the notice: http://politico.pro/167nac1 And a letter from AAR President Ed Hamberger to Foxx: http://politico.pro/1dR4Vt8 And Kathy’s writeup: http://politico.pro/19hKKzj

--The FCC disputes the PTC’s math on antenna installations. An agency official told Kathy the agency can process potentially up to 10,000 applications per year and anticipates having the 22,000-odd PTC antenna applications processed by January 2014.

TRANSIT SAFETY RULE COMING: The Federal Transit Administration will publish a notice of proposed rule-making this week as the first step toward pushing states, transit agencies and the federal government to create transit safety plans. The regulation’s roots lie in the 2009 Metro crash that killed nine people. Advocates originally hoped for a stricter policy that would have involved the FTA certifying safety plans. Here’s the notice: http://1.usa.gov/18D2g2R And Kathy’s story: http://politico.pro/19P8Cv4

--The American Public Transportation Association is pleased. “We appreciate the approach the FTA has taken here by moving forward with an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, and enabling substantial public comment in this process,” APTA spokeswoman Virginia Miller said, adding: “We look forward to working with the Administration to improve safety for an already extremely safe industry, while ensuring that these new regulations do not impose unnecessary or excessive burdens on our transit systems.”

SPEAKING OF APTA: Foxx and FTA Administrator Peter Rogoff are scheduled to speak at the group’s annual conference in Chicago today. The pair will speak at 2:30 p.m.

BLUMENTHAL WANTS METRO-NORTH HEARING: Sen. Richard Blumenthal is asking for a congressional hearing on the major disruptions plaguing Metro-North’s New Haven Line and wants to look at the possibility of “emergency investments” in the Northeast Corridor.

--In a joint letter with Sen. Chuck Schumer, Blumenthal asks the Energy Department to investigate what caused the power outage snarling the New Haven Line and to see if adequate plans are in place to protect Amtrak and the Long Island Rail Road from the same problems. http://1.usa.gov/16CuQFG

--ACELA BACK IN ACTION: The Acela will start running between Boston and New York again today after “successful testing of a temporary repair to the electrical system that powers the Metro-North Railroad section of the Northeast Corridor,” the railroad said. For local commuters, the MTA has designed a new plan that should be able to carry one-half of the New Haven Line’s normal load. Transportation Nation has a helpful explainer: http://wny.cc/1bks7Ct

DRUG-TESTING ADVANCES AT ICAO: From Kathy Wolfe: “ICAO is moving forward with a U.S. proposal to create international standards for requiring drug and alcohol testing for safety-critical employees following an airline crash in a foreign country, according to two sources. Likely the proposal will be delegated to a working group of experts within ICAO for further development before it moves along in the process, which can take years to finalize.”

FL. DEMS WANT STATE AG TO BACK MERGER: Democratic members of Congress are upset with their state’s GOP attorney general for joining a lawsuit pushed by a Democratic Justice Department. South Florida Reps. Alcee Hastings, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Ted Deutch, Frederica Wilson, Lois Frankel, Joe Garcia and Patrick Murphy wrote to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi asking her to drop her support for the DOJ’s lawsuit aiming to block the merger of American Airlines and US Airways. Here’s their letter: http://1.usa.gov/18hRxfw

BE AN AGRICULTURE PRO: Pro Agriculture, the second of three new Pro policy areas launching this fall, will debut on Wednesday, Oct. 2, and will feature breaking news and inside analysis from our best-in-the-business reporters. To learn more about Pro Agriculture, email [email protected] or call 703-341-4600.

THE AUTOBAHN (SPEED READ)

--Chris Christie is offering an extension of a transit line to Newark as an incentive to United Airlines to start offering service to Atlantic City. WSJ: http://on.wsj.com/1bUK8GY

--Sen. Mary Landrieu has launched a petition to make sure the Morganza project is in the final version of the water infrastructure bill: http://1.usa.gov/1dQTWQr

--Maryland’s MARC train is set to start running between Baltimore and D.C. on weekends in early December. Here’s the timetable: http://1.usa.gov/1bM3L3X

--Two of Boston’s most famous Chinatown bus companies are trying to win new licenses to operate. Boston Globe: http://b.globe.com/1bgz5by

--A light rail line reaching Seattle’s University District and Capitol Hill neighborhood may open early. Seattle Times: http://bit.ly/1at03bH

--The Transportation Department has set a tentative deadline of February for a formal rule requiring in-flight entertainment to be accessible to deaf passengers. USA Today: http://usat.ly/1fxw08O

--Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley is teaming with two men he regularly criticizes — Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — on a joint application to be an FAA drone test site. Baltimore Sun: http://bit.ly/15EnAmD

THE COUNTDOWN: DOT funding and passenger rail policy both run out in less than 24 hours. Surface transportation policy is up in 366 days and FAA policy in 731 days. The mid-term elections are in 400 days.

CABOOSE: Saturday Night Live takes on airport boarding in its season premiere. “We’re now boarding first class, X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Business Class.” http://bit.ly/15Ep4NK

** A message from POWERJobs: Tap into the power of POWERJOBS for the newest job opportunities in the Washington area from the area’s top employers, including SAIC Frederick, The Boeing Company, TASC and METRO. Powered by names you trust — POLITICO, WTOP, WJLA/ABC-TV, NewsChannel 8 and Federal News Radio- POWERJOBS is the ultimate career site with more than 2 million job searches and nearly 17,000 applications submitted this year so far. Connect through Facebook or LinkedIn, search jobs by industry and set up job-specific email alerts using POWERJobs.com, the site for Washington’s top talent. **

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