Opinion from Lionel Randolph: “We Need Our Leaders to Prioritize Transit”
Lionel Randolph is a transit operator, the President of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1436 in Harrisburg and the Legislative Director for the Amalgamated Transit Union’s Pennsylvania Joint Conference Board
Transit is essential for our community. Transit is a way to connect people to people. People to businesses and people to their community. It is a driver of economic growth and opportunities.
I know this first hand as the union president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1436 representing CAT aka Rabbittransit of Cumberland-Dauphin Transit Authority of Susquehanna Regional Transit Authority aka SRTA.
I see that transportation here in the city of Harrisburg, and throughout the state, is a lifeline for many.
Public transit is a lifeline for voters in every Pennsylvania county. It helps essential workers get to the hospitals, medical facilities and doctors offices. It helps grandparents go to the store and medical appointments independently. And it helps our students go to school.
Public transportation plays a major part of keeping the economy going. From games to restaurants, to hotel stays, public transportation is the too-often unseen connector of people, places and goods. It helps warehouse workers get to Amazon, FedEx, UPS etc to make sure people in our community get their package on-time.
But for far too long, policymakers in Washington, including some of our local representatives in Congress, like Congressman Scott Perry, have prioritized highways and cars over public transit. This has devastating impacts on the budgets of local transit agencies like ours.
In fact, our representative Scott Perry has been a leader in obstructing and dismantling public transportation, including adding several “Perry amendments” to a 2023 federal transportation bill. His proposed amendments would reduce transit infrastructure grant funding to $0, prohibit funds for development by transit infrastructure, and eliminate federal funding for local transit agencies that offer zero fare transit service.
And even when Congress as a whole has taken vital steps in recent years to fund transit, including the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), Perry and other Republicans voted against it in the House of Representatives.
The truth of the matter is that in communities, like ours, transit is a driver of economic growth, jobs, and opportunity for many residents. Nationally, tens of millions of people in the U.S.—from small rural towns to major urban centers—rely on public transit to get to work every day, generating trillions of dollars in economic activity. Every dollar invested in transit offers a 5-to-1 return, and every $1 billion invested in public transit produces 50,000 jobs. Transit agencies are often among the largest employers in their cities.
An investment in transit is an investment in our community. And it is time for our representatives in Washington to understand that.