Eastbound Originally uploaded by robholland Take action if you live in one of these Senate Banking Committee states

AL – Sen. Shelby
CO – Sen. Bennet
HI – Sen. Akaka
ID – Sen. Crapo
IL – Sen. Kirk
KS – Sen. Moran
LA – Sen. Vitter
MT – Sen. Tester
NC – Sen. Hagan
NE – Sen. Johanns
NJ – Sen. Menendez
NY – Sen. Schumer
OH – Sen. Brown
OR – Sen. Merkley
PA – Sen. Toomey
RI – Sen. Reed
SC – Sen. DeMint
SD – Tim Johnson
TN – Sen. Corker
VA – Sen. Warner
WI – Sen. Kohl

USA Today covered the news today from the American Public Transportation Association that transit ridership went up another 2 percent nationally in the third quarter, compared to the same period last year.

“We are seeing employment tick up and people are making lifestyle choices,” says Michael Melaniphy, association president. “People think, ‘There must be a better alternative.’ “

This good news comes along with a dose of bad news — the same bad news we’ve been experiencing for the last three or four years. An example from the story:

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, which serves the Boston area, is considering fare hikes and service cuts to its 180 bus routes and 17 commuter and subway lines because of a potential $161 million shortfall next year, says Acting General Manager Jonathan Davis. The authority posted record ridership in September and October. Weekday ridership for October increased 3.2% compared with a year earlier.

All across the country, hundreds of transit agencies just like the MBTA are in dire budgetary straits: they’re cutting back on service, laying off workers, and hiking fares. On our interactive map about transit cuts across the country, Alexander in Los Angeles described to us how cuts have affected him:

… I am deeply disappointed by the service cuts. I used to be a regular MTA patron (in Los Angeles), however while the subway and LRT service is more or less OK, the bus service has fallen to a completely unacceptable level. …15-minute headways on some lines turned to 40-minute intervals; this is no exaggeration. I am now back to driving (polluting the air and adding to gridlock, having no other choice…)

Of course, Alexander is somewhat lucky, in that he can afford a car and gas to still make it to work each day. Millions of others depend on public transportation each day without any other options to lean on when their bus starts coming once an hour instead of every 15 minutes.

We talk about this now because a key Senate committee is deciding the fate of public transportation right now. The Senate Banking Committee is writing their portion of the Senate transportation reauthorization and they have jurisdiction over transit.

They need to know that it’s important to give transit agencies the flexibility to use their money not just to buy new buses or railcars but for the operation of those buses and trains. That’s because transit agencies in our larger cities aren’t allowed to use the federal dollars they receive to keep trains and buses running, even in this incredibly difficult time.

Public transportation ridership has been growing three times faster than the US population to reach record highs. Public transit is a driving force in our economy, and we need it now more than ever to help the economy rebound.

So if you live in one of the states listed below or at right, tell your Senators on the Banking Committee to support flexibility for public transportation operations in their draft transportation bill. 

(If you don’t live in a Banking Committee state, the action page won’t let you send a message.)

AL – Sen. Shelby
CO – Sen. Bennet
HI – Sen. Akaka
ID – Sen. Crapo
IL – Sen. Kirk
KS – Sen. Moran
LA – Sen. Vitter
MT – Sen. Tester
NC – Sen. Hagan
NE – Sen. Johanns
NJ – Sen. Menendez
NY – Sen. Schumer
OH – Sen. Brown
OR – Sen. Merkley
PA – Sen. Toomey
RI – Sen. Reed
SC – Sen. DeMint
SD – Tim Johnson
TN – Sen. Corker
VA – Sen. Warner
WI – Sen. Kohl

“Representatives Carnahan and LaTourette have hit the nail on the head with this bill. In the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, with gas prices wildly fluctuating, hard-working Americans need affordable transportation choices. But transit agencies across this country are having to cut service, leaving people stranded without a way to get to work, or to school, or to the doctor. This bill will help to ensure that people in cities large and small can continue to rely on public transportation to get them where they need to go.”

While the House and Senate agreement this week on a clean six-month extension of the current transportation program offers a temporary reprieve from deep cuts, advocates remain rightly concerned about the potential 35 percent across-the-board cut proposed by in the House when Congress takes up a longer-term bill next year.

It’s in this spirit that the Don’t X Out Public Transportation rallies will commence next Tuesday, September 20. Organized in cooperation with the American Public Transportation Association in 15 cities, these events will highlight how a one-third cut in transit would hurt Americans in their daily lives — their ability to get to work, groceries and basic services, among other necessities.

With our economic recovery on life support and no signs of a thaw in the unemployment rate, this is the wrong time to be talking about cuts. In fact, according to APTA’s calculations, Americans looking to save money are already reducing their monthly budgets by hundreds simply by altering how they get to work. The numbers tell the story: Americans who switch from driving to riding public transportation to work save an average of $830 per month and nearly $10,000 every year, using the current national gas price average — $3.65 per gallon — as a baseline.

Democrats and Republicans in Washington have not always agreed on the prescription for an ailing economy, but most everyone acknowledges that continued joblessness is a problem in need of serious attention. Many Americans, both unemployed, underemployed or too discouraged to keep looking, are scraping by every month, with a big chunk still underwater on mortgages and debt. Why would Congress take away a money-saving lifeline like public transportation? And what about the job-seeker who cannot get and keep a job without access to these services?

If you want to speak up about prioritizing transit and preventing cuts, visit supporttransit.org to find an event in your area. You’re also encouraged to ride public transportation next Tuesday and wear red. The locations for nationwide events as of today are as follows:

• Birmingham, Alabama
• Boston, Massachusetts
• Chicago, Illinois
• Fall River and New Bedford, Massachusetts
• Greensboro, North Carolina
• Johnstown, Pennsylvania
• Los Angeles, California
• Miami, Florida
• Minneapolis. Minnesota
• New York, New York
• Oakland, California
• Providence, Rhode Island
• Springfield, Massachusetts
• Worchester, Massachusetts

Check this site for information on exact locations and times as details are confirmed. We’ll have more information later this week and early next week.

Under the deal, privately-owned Veolia Transportation would begin operating the 48 Long Island bus lines, which serve an average of 100,000 riders daily. Long Island Bus is one of the largest suburban bus systems in the country, according to Transportation Nation.

This week’s announcement was not a surprise, as Mangano has made his intention to privatize the system known for some months. Mangano ran for office and won on an aggressive anti-tax platform, steadfastly opposing new revenues and refusing to meet the requested financial commitments to the Long Island Bus system requested by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. In a press release announcing the deal today, he described the New York MTA as a “bloated bureaucracy.”

Veolia officials say they can run the system at three quarters of Long Island Bus’ current operating budget of $141 million, and Mangano has estimated savings of between $2 and $4 million a year. But the math, according to the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, just doesn’t add up. Privatization in other parts of the country has often resulted in higher costs to the county and reduced services, wrote TSTC’s Stephen Higashide:

For example, last year Veolia received a local subsidy of $77 million to operate Phoenix’s bus system, and provided 1.9 million hours of service. By contrast, Nassau County contributed only $9.1 million to LI Bus (with the MTA paying another $25 million) and received 1.2 million hours of service.

The contract requires approval from the County Legislature and the state-run Nassau Interim Finance Authority.

The consequences of inaction would have been unacceptably draconian. It would have meant the elimination of 25 out of 48 routes, two hundred lay-offs and 16,000 riders left stranded, with 200 disabled riders losing paratransit services. Friday’s announcement, the result of months of negotiations between Nassau County and New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, puts the brakes on the cuts until the end of the year.

The discrepancy in funding arose largely because Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano refused to meet the obligation MTA officials deemed necessary to align with the contributions of neighboring counties. Although Nassau County is very wealthy, Mangano ran and won on an anti-tax platform and has remained steadfast against new revenues.

In an editorial today, the New York Times endorsed the $8.6 billion infusion, while noting that it is limited to the calendar year. The Times also encouraged Nassau to pay its fair share and chastised Mangano’s approach. “Buses limit traffic congestion and keep the economy moving. They are a means of survival for thousands of riders,” the Times wrote, continuing:

Instead of protecting that vital service, Mr. Mangano says a privatized system would run better for significantly less money. That’s ludicrous, as anyone will tell you who remembers the 1970s, when the failures of Nassau’s jumble of badly run private bus lines prompted the state to rescue the system.

The Tr-State Transportation Campaign has more information on the deal, including a statement here.

This week’s news out of Nassau County in New York is particularly bleak. Because County Executive Edward Mangano and Metropolitan Transit Authority chairman Jay Walder were unable to reach a deal on funding, the Long Island bus will essentially be cut in half. According to the MTA’s proposed cuts:

• Twenty-five of 48 routes would be eliminated entirely and weekend service cut from two routes.
• Nearly 16,000 riders would be left without a transit option and 18% of Able-Ride users stripped of access to transportation.
• Two hundred LI Bus employees would be laid off — and an untold number of riders could lose their jobs due to lack of access to transportation, which in turn would negatively impact Long Island businesses.

The Tri-State Transportation Campaign, a T4 partner, has called on New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and State Senators Dean Skelos and Charles Fuschillo to mediate a deal or develop an aid package. As Ryan Lynch described on Mobilizing the Region, County Executive Mangano has been a significant obstacle:

Mangano has refused to increase Nassau County’s contribution to LI Bus even though it is the only suburban county to receive MTA funding for its bus system, and its contribution to the system is at historic lows. Walder has declined to phase out LI Bus funding gradually, insisting on an overnight cut.

Tr-State Transportation Campaign is encouraging people to get involved in the fight to maintain this crucial service and join the  “Save Long Island Bus” Facebook page. They also urge folks to call County Executive Mangano, State Senators Skelos and Fuschillo, and Governor Cuomo.

Thousands of transit workers gathered near the Capitol today in protest of the crippling service cuts and layoffs that are devastating transit agencies throughout the country.

The “Keep America Moving” rally,  co-sponsored by the Amalgamated Transit Union and Transport Workers Union, aimed to turn up the heat for Congressional action on operating aid. One look at Transportation for America’s transit funding crisis map shows how dire things are, reminding us that the problem is bigger than any single agency, city or state. A national crisis requires a national response, and that is exactly what today’s event was about.

The mix of bus drivers, station agents and other industry workers came primarily from New York, although Washington, Atlanta and Boston were represented as well. Many carried signs with messages like “hands off my station agents,” “think before you cut” and another with “don’t cut the _____ bus route,” with workers filling in the blank. T-shirts distributed to participants bore the message “mass transit is America’s future.”

The rally built upon a recent series of high-profile events with similar objectives. In an unusual and provocative move, buses or trains targeted for deep cuts or elimination in Atlanta’s MARTA system were marked with large X’s last week to show residents the transportation options they’re slated to lose. Both MARTA and the neighboring C-Tran in Clayton County, Georgia — a system that was forced to close entirely — were cited by speakers today.

Congressman Keith Ellison, a Democrat from Minneapolis, told the crowd he is committed to fighting for transit assistance this year. He reminded all the workers present that this issue isn’t just about them — the vital workers who keep our buses and trains running — it’s about the millions who depend on those buses and trains to get to work each day. With federal money to keep transit systems running, “we not only help save your jobs, we help you get other people to their jobs,” Rep. Ellison said. “I’m going to be fighting for you and telling your story right here on the House floor today.”

He was followed by Rev. Jesse Jackson, who got the crowd fired up and demanded hope despite the clouds on the horizon.

Calling cuts to bus service in Atlanta and elsewhere “an economic heart attack,” Jackson said “people with dialysis can’t get to the hospital, children can’t get to school, workers lose their jobs.”

Jackson called for broader partnerships to save transit jobs and halt cuts, saying “students must join the coalition, teachers must join the coalition, environmentalists must join the coalition. This is not just about the drivers, it’s about the riders, about health, the environment.”

And in a call-and-response, Jackson told the audience to “keep hope” and “roll on, bus drivers.”

Upon the conclusion of Jackson’s remarks, JP Patafio of the ATU thanked him for “giving us a voice.” It was clear from the reception the Reverend received that he was right.

TWU Local 100 Originally uploaded by Transportation for America

Americans are continuing to open their wallets and vote with their feet in support of increased transportation options, despite a tough economic climate. On Tuesday, a half-cent sales tax to fund the Metro transit system in St. Louis County in Missouri was approved by a decisive 63 percent of the vote. The increased revenue from Proposition A  will allow officials to restore previously eliminated bus lines and expand the system into more far-reaching suburbs. The measure will also restore lost Call-A-Ride service, a door-to-door van for older and disabled riders.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

If the measure failed, service would have been scaled back to about half the level it was before Metro’s first round of service cutbacks in March 2009. Metro suspended bus service to 2,300 of the 9,000 bus stops and bus shelters in the Missouri half of the transit system.

MetroLink trains ran less often on both sides of the Mississippi River during times when commuters needed them the most: rush hour. Federal stimulus money helped restore some of that lost service in August, but that money soon will run out.

Although public transportation will not be on truly secure funding until Congress approves and President Obama signs a new and forward-looking transportation bill, it is terrific to see communities like St. Louis step up and refuse to wait. For now, St. Louis County has a reliable local funding stream for its transit system and the ability to plan for overdue expansion. The margin of victory conveys strong and bipartisan support for Metro in St. Louis County, which has a much more moderate electorate than the city proper.

The election excited the student body at Washington University, which is located in St. Louis. The campus chancellor, Mark Wrighton, served as co-chair of the Proposition A campaign. Many students volunteered for the campaign and 20,000 alumni living in St. Louis County received letters of support.

The campaign also relied on Congressman William Lacy Clay, who represents much of the city of St. Louis, and an ad hoc committee of black clergy were also involved.

John Nations, the Republican mayor of suburban Chesterfield, made an astute point about how a vote for Proposition A was also a vote for jobs. He told the Post-Dispatch: “there was a cost to voting no. If it was voted down, people lose their jobs at Metro. People are going to lose their jobs because they can’t access them.”

St. Louis County voted yes to jobs and yes to transit.

Clayton County, one of metro Atlanta’s five core counties — Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Airport is partially in Clayton — will terminate all transit service in 14 days. The transit service, which provides over 2 million rides each year on buses “full to bursting” with riders, according to MARTA CEO Beverly Scott, will shut down service entirely, leaving the 50% or more of C-Tran riders with no regular access to a car stranded.

Public transportation (or anything that provides people with mobility) is really about access. It gives people access to opportunity, access to daily needs, access to a job, access to life — and maybe even the means to improve the quality of that life.

One story highlighted in October in this piece from the Atlanta Journal Constitution shows the vital connection that C-Tran makes for one Clayton County resident:

Twenty-year-old Bridget Milam takes Clayton County’s bus system, C-Tran, wherever she goes. She takes it to Brown Mackie College in Atlanta, where she’s getting an associate’s degree in early childhood education. She rides it to her job at a day care center. She has never had a car and can’t afford one now. C-Tran is her lifesaver. Not for long.

…[she] may have to put school and her day care job on hold. “It means I have to find a job closer to home, in walking distance,” she said. “It would probably be fast food.” …Milam expressed frustration that she will “have to settle rather than doing something that could further my career.”

Access to the opportunity that public transit provides can mean the difference between becoming a teacher one day — or a future of asking customers if “they’d like fries with that?”

Despite a proposal to raise fares dramatically, the deficit was still at $1.3 million, and the 5 county commissioners voted 4-1 last year to shut the service down completely, asserting in a statement that “paving roads is a primary duty of the county. Public transit isn’t.”

The Georgia Regional Transportation Authority disagreed strongly with that view. “In Georgia, local roads are a local responsibility, and local transit is a local responsibility,” GRTA Deputy Director Jim Ritchey told the AJC.

Unfortunately for Bridget Milam and thousands of others in Clayton County who depend on C-Tran each day to get to work, class, the doctor or pretty much anything else, Clayton County leaders don’t see it that way — leaving them stranded at the station come April 1.

If you’ve been affected by cuts in transit service or fare increases — especially if you’re in Clayton County, Georgia — tell us your story and we’ll help share it with Congress.

UPDATED: Like this touching story that Carmen, a now former C-Tran rider, shared with us on that page:

Hello. My name is Carmen and I’ve been a passenger on CTRAN’s paratransit service for as long as they have been in service. I work for Delta Air Lines and use the service to get back and forth to work. At this time, I have to move closer to my job in the Fulton County area. This is a hardship because now I have to cancel my lease agreement with my current apartment complex in order to move. They have been very helpful but I really did not want to move because of the negligence of Clayton County managing the taxpayers’ funds. Not everyone can afford to move at the last minute. I truly hope that Clayton County uses the funds they do have in reserve, as mentioned by Eldrin Bell, to keep CTRAN running. If the Commisioners or their family members were in our position maybe they would look at the situation differently. But of course those that are not affected are not concerned at all and that is a shame they are not here for the people.

Update 2: Read this superb and touching story from the LA Times on the last day of service.

Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood is (rightfully) touting the great news on his blog this morning that the Federal Transit Administration met their ambitious deadline for distributing 100% of the transit funds from the stimulus package. That’s great news, but it should be accompanied by the sobering reminder that these public transportation systems that get people to work each day largely couldn’t use that money to keep from having to cut service at a time when it’s needed the most.

The FTA has now doled out 881 grants totaling $7.5 billion since the stimulus was signed last year, and LaHood notes that these grants have funded the purchase of nearly 12,000 buses, vans and rail vehicles; construction or renovation of more than 850 transit facilities; and $620 million in preventive maintenance to keep systems running smoothly.

But what about the hundreds of agencies cutting back service, raising fares, or laying off workers — like the terrible story from Atlanta we chronicled last Friday, where 25-30% of all service may be history come June?

Unfortunately, the FTA’s hands were tied with the rules for the grants set by Congress, which meant that almost all of the money had to be used to purchase new equipment or perform maintenance, even if those agencies couldn’t afford to hire or train the new drivers to operate the buses or railcars. We say “most of the money,” because a group of lawmakers were able to successfully include a provision in a separate bill during the summer that made it possible for local transit agencies to spend up to 10% of their transit stimulus money on operations. But in many places like St. Louis, where the deficit was ten times the $4.6 million they could now spend on service, that’s not enough to keep from having to make drastic cuts or lay workers off, even while getting an influx of federal money.

With a full transportation bill likely months away, in the short term we need to urge the Senate to include money in any future jobs bills to help keep transit systems running.

With millions who depend on these systems each day to get to work, making sure that reliable transit service doesn’t disappear will help get them to their jobs quickly and conveniently each day, ensuring that many of them stay employed.