On Tuesday, September 20th the Bus Riders Union and Transit Riders for Public Transportation, joined with the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) to send a call to local allies and advocates in 13 cities around the country. Together we sent a message to President Obama and Congress, that protecting the funding for public transportation should be a national priority.

This month TRPT welcomes its 21st member organization, the Milwaukee Transit Riders Union. We are excited to have a new member at the same time as the list of supporters for our national civil rights legislative campaign sees exciting growth.  Our campaign to ensure civil rights in federal transportation investments is now supported by prominent national organizations such as the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the nation's premier civil and human rights coalition, the Advancement Project and the Opportunity Agenda.

As Congressman Mica holds his field hearings across the country, he has
not opened the hearings to spoken comments from the public. So one day ahead of the February 23 hearing in West Los Angeles, the BRU held its own People's Hearing on the corner of Wilshire Blvd and Western.

What: People's Field Hearing

Who: Transit riders, The Bus Riders Union, Transit Riders for Public Transportation national campaign, community allies including unions and community organizations
Where: Wilshire Blvd and Western Ave.

When: Tuesday, February 22 at 10:30 am

 

TRPT members, WEACT and UPROSE, are part of the New York State Transportation Equity Alliance (NYSTEA). The alliance created a survey, which asked crucial questions about transportation and equity that was circulated amongst New York State candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives. The survey included questions like "what does the term transportation equity mean to you?" and "What are your top legislative priorities for the federal transportation bill that specifically address environmental justice and civil rights?"

Little Village for Environmental Justice starts local fight with a multi-year effort to restore bus service to 31st Street.

The service to this area, which connects transit dependent Latino's, African-Americans, Chinese-Americans,
working class whites, youth, seniors, and people with disabilities to
jobs, schools, hospitals, and recreational areas has become the focus of their fight to restore local bus service. 

Little Village also building an alliance to start a worker managed transit cooperative

Many of us have been carefully watching the administration's moves on infrastructure investment ever since he announced his "Roads, Railways and Runways" plan in September and started talking about a permanent Infrastructure Bank.