– Dorval R. Carter, Jr., President, Chicago Transit Authority, Chicago, IL
“I am so appreciative of APTA for giving us the opportunity to share the impacts that COVID-19 has had on our agencies, cities, and communities. Our service is absolutely essential, and those making essential trips to get to work and supporting the economy are relying on us during this pandemic. All of these transit agencies are committed to providing the most effective and safe service that we can, but we need support to do so.”
– Inez Evans, President and CEO, Indianapolis Public Transportation Corporation, Indianapolis, IN
“Unfortunately, the CARES Act funds to Metro will dry up later this year, at the same time that fare revenues are down 90% and our state and local funders face a financial crisis of their own. Our concern is how are we going to provide the essential service to support restarting the economy, and meet payroll? We need federal assistance. The harsh reality is without additional federal funds, we are left with the difficult choices that run counter to the economic recovery we all want to see.”
– Paul J. Wiedefeld, General Manager and CEO, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, Washington, DC
“Houston is home to the world’s largest medical center and METRO provides transit to one-third of those employees, as well as many other essential workers in our region. Clearly, public transit is vital. Most of our funding comes through sales tax revenue, which is extremely important. We’re anticipating a significant decrease in that cash flow because of COVID-19 as well as the oil and gas downturn right now. Without additional support from the federal government, the outcome could be sobering in terms of how we can support our operations and our community today and in the future.”
– Tom Lambert, President and CEO, Houston METRO, Houston, TX
“The transit industry has been instrumental in keeping essential workers moving during the COVID-19 pandemic and although we’ve seen our ridership drop significantly, the value of public transit has never been more evident. Federal funding has been critical to keeping Mountain Line’s operations going during this unprecedented time, and it will be even more critical as we face an uncertain future.”
– Heather Dalmolin, CEO and General Manager, Mountain Line, Flagstaff, AZ
“We have heard a lot about reopening the economy – getting people back to work and school. Well, our industry plays a humongous role in this – we are the ‘to’ in the phrase, ‘getting back to work’ for a large segment of the population.”
– Clinton B. Forbes, Executive Director, Palm Tran, West Palm Beach, FL
“Even during this economic slowdown, a small transit system like ours is still carrying thousands of passengers every day. The Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky is connecting people to essential jobs that are critical for our local and national economy – jobs in logistics, healthcare, food processing and other key industries. The federal support provided in the CARES Act allowed us to continue to operate and to maintain those critical connections between employers and employees. Additional federal support will allow small transit systems throughout the country to sustain these services for the months ahead as our local and state economies recover.”
– Andrew Aiello, General Manager, Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky, Fort Wright, KY
“Small urban and rural regions are feeling the devastating economic impacts COVID-19 as harshly as large urban areas. In regions like Monterey County, agriculture and hospitality workers who are essential to feeding our nation and supporting the local economy depend on transit to take them to manually intensive jobs that cannot be accomplished via telecommuting. And their families, who do not have access to a private automobile depend on public transit for basic necessities like buying groceries or accessing medical services. Elderly and disabled members of the community depend on ADA paratransit services to receive life-sustaining dialysis. Small rural and public transit operators, many whom do not have access to local sales taxes are spending millions of dollars to ensure safe, clean virus free mobility services are provided in a manner that ensures appropriate social distance, proper ventilation, and frequent cleanings to support the health of transit employees, customers, their families and everyone we contact on a daily basis.”
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July 31, 2020 at 02:50AM
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Transit officials discuss urgent and dire need for more COVID-19 relief funding - metro.net
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