Transportation For America » New report chronicles the impact of transit cuts on American communities

New report chronicles the impact of transit cuts on American communities

August 18, 2009
By Stephen Lee Davis

A new report from Transportation for America and the Transportation Equity Network — following up on our United States of Transit Cutbacks from earlier this year— looks closely at the cuts that public transportation agencies across the country are facing and how they’ve have impacted the people in those communities.

Communities and their transit systems are stuck in a difficult quandary: they’re facing booming, historic ridership and levels of demand for service, while also facing the worst funding crisis in decades.

Stranded at the Station: The Impact of the Financial Crisis in Public Transportation is the first systematic analysis of the issue, and the story is not a pretty one. Nearly 90 percent of transit systems have had to raise fares or cut service in the past year and among the 25 largest transit operators, 10 agencies are raising fares more than 13 percent.

Many transit agencies across the country have cut service, raised fares or laid off workers to deal with shrinking budgets, severely affecting the people who depend on regular, reliable service in order to access jobs, social services and education everyday. Nationwide demand for public transportation is at historic levels and growing, but funding for the day-to-day operations of these transit services is built on an unstable foundation. This report shows that without federal support, many will likely will be unable to meet the demand now and in the future.

Download and read the full report at http://t4america.org/resources/stranded

Relatedly, we’ve updated the United States of Transit Cutbacks map to reflect the data in this new report, and the map now includes 21 case studies from the report, highlighting 21 of the many communities facing the most significant budget deficits and those with the highest fare increases for 2009. We’ll be continuing to track the issue and cuts across the nation with that map, so keep us posted if we don’t have your city on the map.

So we want to know: how have these drastic cuts in public transportation service affected your everyday life? Tell us your story and we’ll help share it with Congress.