Rally Transcript:
Patrick J. Foye, Chairman and CEO, MTA:
My colleagues and I have come together again today to discuss an issue critical to our survival federal relief for mass transit.
I repeat, there will be no economic recovery regionally or nationally without significant investment in mass transit. This is not a red or blue issue. It’s a jobs issue. Mass transit systems across the country carried the United States throughout the pandemic, and we will carry it out of this crisis. The immediate need is this in order to ensure the health care workers, grocery workers, first responders and other essential personnel can continue to get to work and beat this pandemic, we need substantial federal funding now. If relief doesn’t come soon, these deep cuts at the MTA and other agencies will take effect and they will fall disproportionately on the backs of working people, low-income customers, people of color and low-income communities. We’re all following with intense interest o
POLITICO
Nine transit leaders from major cities across the U.S. held a virtual press conference calling for assistance.
Customers use the New York City subway system on April 7, 2020. | AP Photo/John Minchillo
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Top transit officials from New York to San Francisco are making a final push for at least $32 billion in federal aid as Congress hammers out a potential Covid-19 relief bill in the waning days of the Trump administration.
Nine transit leaders from major cities across the United States held a virtual press conference calling for assistance, with many warning that they will be forced to move forward with service cuts and layoffs in the first quarter of next year without a stimulus.
MTA and eight other transit agencies around the U.S. participated in a virtual rally yesterday.
New York MTA
On Monday,
RT&S reported on the dire situation public transit agencies find themselves in due to loss of ridership caused by the pandemic. Yesterday, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) held a virtual rally with eight other large transit agencies across the nation to press the case for a COVID-19 relief package from Congress that includes substantial relief for transit agencies.
Here is part of a press release that MTA released yesterday:
“The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), today held a virtual rally with the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (NORTA), Denver Regional Transportation District (RTD), Indianapolis Public Transportation Corporation (IndyGo), Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA), San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), Utah Transit Authority (UTA), Miami-Dade County Department of Transport