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Urge Congress for federal transit operation funding – Take Action Now!

by Nicole Eng on Monday, July 13, 2009
Passengers wait to board a Bus Rapid

Quick Links:

  1. Instructions in Brief
  2. Sample Form Letter
  3. Look Up Your Zip Code  
  4. Write Your Representative Now

Email your congressmember to co-sponsor H.R. 2746 (Carnahan Bill) that allows a larger percentage of federal funds to be available for operating transit.

One of the core demands of Transit Riders for Public Transportation is to have 50% of all transit funds be dedicated towards operation in the next federal surface transportation act. Almost 100 transit agencies across the U.S, have announced that they will have to cut transit service and/or raise fares due to shortfalls in operation funding at a time of unprecedented ridership growth.

Transit operation funding is critical for protecting the civil rights of low income bus riders and mobility needs of all transit users. Growing transit ridership means less people on polluting single passenger auto, less air toxins and asthma, and less greenhouse gases. 

The growing needs of transit has not been the priority of the federal government who continues to give 80% of its funding to highways and roads. We need to push Congress to support dedicated federal operation funding.

The Carnahan Bill is a first step towards getting operation funding back in the list of priorities in the federal transportation agenda.  Take action now to urge your congressmember for support on this bill.

 Instructions in Brief:

  1. Look up your 9-digit Zip: You will need it to figure out which representative your letter will be addressing. Look Up Your Zip Code Now  
  2. Writing the letter: You may use our form letter and add your own comments and issues to the letter.  Individual letters have much more influence, so we strongly encourage you to use your own voice to respond! 
  3. Preparing the letter form: The "Write your Representative" form is below.  Input your information, including the 9-digit zip, step by step in the form below.  There should be a webpage displaying within a frame below that shows the form.  If you don't see it, click here to the House of Representatives webpage. 

Sample Form Letter

Cut and paste this letter into your message area.  We strongly encourage folks to add their own commentary or reword the text to their own voice as individualized letters have much more impact. 

Copying and pasting text:

  • Use your mouse to highlight the text that you would like to copy, by clicking and dragging from the beginning of the text to the end of the text.
  • Right-click anywhere in the middle of the highlighted text for the option menu, then click "Copy"
  • When you have arrived at the form letter area, to paste the text, right click in the form and then click "Paste"

I am a constituent of your district and writing to urge you to co-sponsor the H.R. 2746, a bill proposed by Congressmember Russ Carnahan (MO). H.R. 2746 will allow at least 30% federal transportation funds to be available for operation for urbanized areas over 1 million in population and more for smaller areas.  While the current federal surface transportation authorization act, includes up to 5% of federal  funds to be used for operation for large cities, this amount falls far too short to cover the magnitude and depth of the transit operation crisis sweeping across the country.

Nationwide operation crisis—Across the United States, major cities and regions known for their excellent transit are facing massive cuts in services, raising fares and regressive taxes, following the footstep of St. Louis where 2,300 transit stops were cut in April.  These cuts impacted the most vulnerable communities often low income and people of color with more public health and economic burdens. Chicago faces up to 20% cuts in their transit service this year. New York City already cut service and raised fares early this year while the Bay Area announced needing to cut 15-30% cuts in service just after their fare increase went into affect this month. Los Angeles faces fare increases for the next 30 years even though its third countywide transportation sales tax went into effect this July along with the decision to cut 120,000 hours of bus service, and Portland plans to cut weeknight transit service.  We’re seeing record high ridership (highest since 1956),  as more people are using transit, yet all these cuts discourage transit use at a time of accelerated global warming and economic crisis.

This bill is a critical first step to provide much needed relief to millions of transit users. Ultimately, to continue shifting people from polluting auto to environmentally sustainable transit, we need dedicated transit operation funding from the federal government.  I ask for your leadership once again by co-sponsoring H.R. 2746 and building support around federal transit operation funding within Congress .   Thank you.

Write Your Representative

This form is hosted on the U.S. House of Representatives site.  Do you know your 9-digit zip code?  Look Up Your Zip Code Now 

If the above "Write Your Representative" form isn't working, please go directly to the House of Representatives webpage itself. 

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