Ruth Steiner receives funding from United States Department of Transportation (under their University Transportation Center Program (see https://www.t

Pandemic-stricken mass transit would get $85 billion in Biden stimulus plan – a down payment on reviving American cities

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2021-05-21 15:30:06

Ruth Steiner receives funding from United States Department of Transportation (under their University Transportation Center Program (see https://www.transportation.gov/content/university-transportation-centers)) and Florida Department of Transportation.

Congress now has control over what kind of commute – good, bad, awful – workers returning to offices in the U.S. will have.

President Joe Biden’s American Jobs Plan, released in March 2021, includes US$85 billion for city transit agencies to improve their systems by purchasing new buses and train cars and maintaining subway stations and tracks.

If passed in Congress, the dollars would explicitly build on the relief already provided to cities in last year’s American Rescue Plan, according to the White House. That coronavirus relief bill, passed in March 2020, kept fare-starved buses, trains and subways running throughout the pandemic, often with scaled-back service, helping millions of U.S. workers to reach jobs providing essential services. The money covered payroll, rider safety measures and pandemic protective equipment for drivers.

Each of these bills supports public transit systems in different but critical ways. U.S. transit agencies have always maintained a delicate balance in how they spend scarce taxpayer money, between operations and capital investment.

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