Transportation

A group representing helicopter operators has filed a lawsuit claiming new laws restricting flights at an airport in the Hamptons are unconstitutional.

An emergency order requiring trains hauling crude oil and other flammable liquids to slow down as they pass through urban areas and a series of other steps to improve the safety were announced Friday by the Department of Transportation.

The stock market drifted lower Monday as investors looked ahead to a busy week for corporate earnings.

Mayor Bill de Blasio and U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer rode the "R'' train from Brooklyn to City Hall on Thursday morning, chatting with straphangers, handing out leaflets and, at times, adopting Boston accents as they called for the public to pressure Congress to increase federal transportation funding.

U.S. safety officials say tank cars carrying oil or ethanol by rail urgently need to be retrofitted to make them more fire-resistant after a spate of explosive accidents in recent months.

The Senate Finance Committee has passed an operating budget for Alaska that would not fund public education in advance and aims to prevent Gov. Bill Walker from taking any unilateral action to expand Medicaid.

Baggage handlers, airplane cleaners and other non-union workers at Philadelphia's airport have called a strike to protest what they say are low wages and unfair labor practices.

Following a spate of explosive accidents involving North Dakota crude, the state began requiring companies on Wednesday to remove certain liquids and gases from oil before it's loaded onto rail cars — a move industry and state regulators believe will make for safer shipments.

Gov. Dannel P.

Many tractor-trailers on the nation's roads are driven faster than the 75 mph their tires are designed to handle, a practice that has been linked to wrecks and blowouts but has largely escaped the attention of highway officials.

BNSF has started taking additional safety measures for crude oil shipments because of four recent high-profile derailments in the U.S. and Canada, the railroad said Monday.

4:10 p.m. (1510 GMT, 11:10 a.m. EDT) A Duesseldorf hospital says the co-pilot of Germanwings flight 9525 had been a patient there over the past two months.

An organization of Pennsylvania's county commissioners is lining up against Gov. Tom Wolf's proposal to replace a fee on Marcellus Shale natural gas wells with a flat annual payment to the same recipients, primarily governments where wells are hosted.

A $41 million cut to the state's highway fund, as proposed by House budget writers, would make roads more dangerous and result in more than 300 layoffs, transportation officials said Monday.

Gov. Mark Dayton gave railroad companies and Republicans a public tongue-lashing Friday for their resistance to his tax plan to fund safety improvements across Minnesota's railroad network.

A dysfunctional Congress may not make a May 31 deadline for passing a new transportation funding bill, U.S. Rep. Peter Welch told state lawmakers Thursday, but a temporary measure could get Vermont through another road and bridge construction season.

A unanimous Supreme Court says Amtrak is more like a part of the government than a private corporation when it helps federal agencies craft rules to keep trains running on schedule.

Aircraft manufacturers are urging a ban on bulk lithium battery shipments on passenger planes, calling the threat of fires "an unacceptable risk." The International Coordination Council of Aerospace Industry Associations, which represents aircraft makers such as Boeing and Airbus, is also calling for stronger packaging and handling regulations for batteries shipped on cargo planes, according to a document obtained by The Associated Press.

The Supreme Court says Alabama should have the chance to justify a fuel sales tax that it assesses on railroads but not on competitors in the trucking and barge industries.

The nearly two dozen small harbors in Connecticut that promote economic development in towns from Norwalk to Groton are fighting to be included in the state's new Port Authority that focuses on the three deep water ports in Bridgeport, New Haven and New London.