A new study by UCLA economist Paul Ong, commissioned by the BRU, finds that MTA policies are squeezing transit riders at both ends. The study reveals that two years after the federal stimulus, fare increases place a burden on transit-dependent people already hit by high unemployment and declining wages.

As MTA prepares to cut another set of over 300,000 hours of bus service, the Bus Riders Union has been on the offensive. Read on to see how despite how MTA slices it, their proposed service cuts and recent fare increases are rolling back Civil Rights!

After a February 2nd vote on Councilmember Rosendahl's motion to study a westide exemption from the Wilshire Bus Only Lane, LA Times writes editorial joins the full Bus-Only lane choir. Read all about it!

Report on Feb. 1st All Region Hearing on the bus service cuts

Let's be clear: the MTA has declared war on a half million Black, Brown, Asian and working class bus riders.

Just one and a half months after this last round of devastating bus service cuts, the MTA has aimed their battle axe at another 27 lines- 11 being proposed for elimination and another 16 to be reduced...

At today's City Council, the 6-year campaign for Wilshire Bus Only Lanes returned to City Hall. We made an excellent showing and came away with a mixed result...

Here's the press release for today's action, "Star Wars Episode I: The Westside Menace" where we re-cast the events surrounding the fate of the Wilshire Bus-Only Lane project to the theme of the forces of Good and Evil in the Star Wars universe. The Bus-Only Lanes Jedi Council, consisting of Bus Riders Union, environmentalists, transportation advocates, and students, held a press conference, action and street theatre this morning in front of the County Supervisors Building...

MTA is Proposing to Cut 13 Bus Lines & Reduce Weekend & Night Service on 16 others!

Top 10 reasons to come out and support the BRU & LA Human Right to Housing Collective March & Concert on December 1st:

In the first successful action of its kind in the nation, Bay Area
members of Transit Riders for Public Transportation (TRPT), Public
Advocates and Urban Habitat, filed a civil rights complaint to stop
$70M in stimulus funds from being allocated to the $500-billion
boondoggle rail project, the Oakland Airport Connector project (OAC). 

Here is a letter that Barbara and I at the BRU sent to the MTA last week on October 19th.  We sent this to MTA as part of the formal public comment process on the Westside Subway Extension. Also known as the "subway to the sea," Mayor Villaraigosa's pet boondoggle project could have a $9 billion price tag that could result in massive civil rights violations of bus riders in particular, the potential disparate impact on hundreds of thousands of low income people of color who ride the bus as the sole or primary means of transportation.

 

 

 

On Wednesday September 29th a band of BRU members entered the final Subway to the Sea Public hearing on the draft EIR and set the tone for the fight to come against MTA’s latest politically motivated boondoggle. This was less than week after they had witnessed the MTA vote to cute 388,000 hours of bus service...

In a call for justice over the LAPD shooting of Manuel Jamines, a 38-year-old Guatemalan immigrant worker, the Bus Riders Union attended a peaceful march on Saturday Sept. 18th, 2010 on 6th St and Union. The Bus Riders Union joined the call for Justicia para Manuel...

Transportation Equity Network (TEN) gathered members from all over the country for a Washington D.C. fly-in to advocate for flexible transit operations funding, job creation and the inclusion of civil rights in transportation policy. TEN's theme for the two day conference is that improvements to transit policy can be a unifying force for advocates, unions and policy makers.

The MTA Board approved yesterday a package of bus service cuts that will be the biggest single reduction in bus service in Los Angeles County in more than 15 years. A total reduction of 387,000 bus service hours this year - 5% of the entire system - will include the elimination of 5 rapid lines 5 other local lines and partial elimination of service on other lines. What does this mean? It will mean longer waits, more overcrowding, and more transfers that will result in an added financial burden to already struggling bus riders.

The Bus Riders Union (BRU) and community allies held a press conference at a LA Unemployment Office in conjunction with the Transportation Equity Network and labor and environmental leaders across the country to strongly urge the use of Federal Infrastructure spending to strengthen transit and create more jobs.

30/10 will gut the bus system, the backbone of public transit in LA. Read the BRU's letter to congress memebers asking them for a no vote to reject Mayor Villaraigosa's 30/10 initiative.

Citing lower ridership and civil rights violations after 20 years and $8 billion spent on Metro Rail, the Bus Riders Union renews call for bus-centered, low-cost transit system in LA County.